Blazing Minds » Internet

The Value Of Mobile Payments [INFOGRAPHIC]

John — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 09:08:42 +0000

It’s no secret that smartphone usage has increased considerably over the last few years, particularly in the UK and the United States. As a direct result of the internet browsing capabilities offered by modern smartphones, more and more people are now going online on their mobiles and even making purchases directly from their handsets.

The following infographic (put together by Cashlog) demonstrates just how popular mobile payments have become, and reveals some interesting and surprising statistics. For example, by 2020 there will be an incredible 10 billion mobile-connected devices, with mobile commerce rising 4,800% between 2010 and 2015 – it even predicts that mobile internet usage will exceed desktop usage by 2014, a statistic that would have seemed nearly impossible just a few years ago.

As always feel free to repost this infographic if you think your readers will find it useful, just please link back to Cashlog or the Blazing Minds website if you do.

The Value Of Mobile Payments [INFOGRAPHIC] is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

Laptops May Be Getting Men Too Heated

Business.com — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 07:46:10 +0000

For guys who may be getting a little too cozy with their laptops, word comes that they may be damaging their relationships in more ways than one.

According to a recent report from the medical journal Fertility and Sterility, men who sit with a laptop on their laps may be impacting their sperm levels, something neither they nor their significant others are likely to want to hear.

The study took samples from 29 healthy male donors, and then placed a few drops of the samples beneath a laptop tied to the Internet through Wi-Fi. The Argentine researchers then hit download to see how the sperm would react.

According to the report, some four hours later, one-fourth of the sperm in close proximity to a laptop had stopped moving around, versus only 14 percent from semen samples which were kept at the same temperature a safe distance away from the computer. Nine percent of the sperm indicated DNA damage, leaving researchers to conclude that electromagnetic radiation occurring during wireless communication was an issue.

As written in their report, researchers noted, “Our data suggest that the use of a laptop computer wirelessly connected to the Internet and positioned near the male reproductive organs may decrease human sperm quality. At present we do not know whether this effect is induced by all laptop computers connected by Wi-Fi to the Internet or what use conditions heighten this effect.”

Meantime, the president of the Society for Male Reproduction and Urology commented to Reuters Health that he is skeptical of laptops in fact being a major reproductive health issue for men.

According to Dr. Robert Oates, “This is not real-life biology; this is a completely artificial setting. It is scientifically interesting, but to me it doesn’t have any human biological relevance.” Oates added that no research has examined whether or not laptop usage by women in close proximity to their bodies has any impact regarding fertility or pregnancy.

So, can we conclude that it is not a good idea for men to be balancing laptops on their laps for hours at a time and still hoping to become fathers?

As the scientists would likely conclude, much more research would be needed on this subject matter before any major health warnings could be issued.

As a 2004 American study pointed out, using a laptop for just 60 minutes increased the temperature of the scrotum by nearly three degrees, as heat has been known to impact sperm production and its quality.

While researchers will likely continue to study and debate the matter, one thing is more crystal clear. Men and women for that matter should be careful not to sit with a laptop on an exposed lap for hours and hours.

Laptop-induced dermatosis, first reported some seven years ago, is where the lap area skin has been exposed to prolonged low-level heating. While there have been no studies to indicate this can cause or lead to a higher risk of cancer, the discoloration can become permanent.

So, might it be time to whip out a pillow, laptop case or other item to place between one’s computer and their lap.

If for no other reason, it will save some expensive trips to the fertility clinic.

Photo credit: zurmat.com

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Laptops May Be Getting Men Too Heated is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

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5 Fundamentals of The Nomad Worker’s Toolkit

PC-mitten — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:14:56 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

Have you ever dreamed of leading a true modern age Nomad lifestyle? Do you like the thought of exploring the world leisurely without ever neglecting your work? In this day and age, there are growing legions of telecommuters who do just that. Thanks to the proliferation of on-line business models, millions of workers get to bring home the bacon while making a home for themselves anywhere in the world, provided there’s Internet access.

Are you already part of the growing legions of Nomad workers? Or maybe you’re still dreaming of charting a new course in your life? Either way, this article will both inspire and prepare you for what’s ahead.

Lugging the office around: what will you need?

True nomads don’t lend much to obsessive planning. If you’re looking to roam the global village freely, you can just make up your rules as you go. However… for the sake of convenience, and to make sure you don’t have to sacrifice your productivity or get behind on your schedule – it’s best to be prepared.

Let’s examine the fundamentals of a fully functional office that would fit inside a rucksack.

1) Laptop

The main cornerstone of your mobile office is your laptop, of course. Will just any laptop do the trick? While it’s ultimately a matter of personal preference, there will be trade-offs you should be mindful of.

Form factor is a major consideration, here: would you rather use a lightweight netbook that can be carried around effortlessly, or do you make a point of using a fully fledged laptop with a bigger screen, as well as increased potential to strain your back? The choice is yours, and so are the consequences of it; so make sure you think things through and find a computer with a good balance between usability and portability.

Ideally, you should get a laptop that weighs less than 3 pounds; anything heavier, and you’ll regret your choice the first day you have to lug it around ten hours in a row.

2) Spare laptop battery

Your mobile workstation should have a battery with at least 4 hours of autonomy, otherwise you’ll spend valuable time hunting for a power, which you could use to actually get work done. Ideally, you should carry at least a fully charged spare battery, because when you’re out on the road you won’t always have access to electric power. The more working time you can squeeze out of your workstation without need to recharge, the better off you’ll be.

3) Internet Dongle

Are you hoping to find a wireless hot spot anywhere you go, anytime you need it? If that’s the case, you will likely be disappointed. It doesn’t matter how metropolitan the area your visiting happens to be; there will be times when you will desperately need Internet access, and none will be readily available in your surroundings. Your first line of defense against this issue will be your trusty air-card, aka Internet Dongle. Carry one of these around, get a suitable data plan to go with it, and it will make your life so much easier.

4) Smartphone

Carrying around a smart-phone will be extremely handy, when you make a living on-line and live your life on the go. You can use your smart-phone to check your e-mails without need to get the laptop out from the backpack, and even do light research if needed be – which is very convenient when traveling around. Provided you have Internet access in your phone, you can use tethering to connect your computer to the Internet when all other options seem to fail.

5) Maintenance and Repair tools

You decide to spend a few weeks away from it all, in a quiet little countryside cottage…and you love it! The weather is great, the scenarios are amazing, and the peacefulness is outstanding. But then, seemingly out of the blue… your computer crashes. Your operating system stubbornly refuses to boot, and you realize you will need to format the Hard Drive. But then you realize you don’t have the tools, and you’re hundreds of miles away from the closest computer shop. What do you do? Simple: before you leave for your explorations, just make sure you prepare a computer maintenance kit including OS disks, bootable flash drive, and whatever tools you anticipate may be necessary. You will be quite happy you’ve adequately prepared for dealing with computer mishaps, should they happen to arise.

This guest post was brought to you by the UK Holiday Places, whose crew is quite adept to the nomad lifestyle. Come visit us when looking for quality accommodation during your excursions in the UK!

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5 Fundamentals of The Nomad Worker’s Toolkit is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

Optimising Your Website With Google PANDA Update In Mind

John — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 07:55:42 +0000

As we all know, Google is the powerhouse when it comes to the world of search engines. Despite the growth of Bing in the past few years, Google is still the dominant force, and the latest algorithm update released recently caused quite a stir in the SEO world. The ‘Panda’ update was meant to downgrade the power of low quality spammy sites and content farms stealing others’ content, however it ended up affecting millions of sites in both good and bad ways. Generally it has helped a lot in improving the quality of search results returned by Google, but it means that there is now a new focus for the SEO world. This update and the subsequent tweaks (upto Panda v2.4) was one of the widest reaching updates, affecting over 10% of global search queries. Here is a quick reference guide to some of the do’s and don’t of SEO since Panda was rolled out worldwide:

- Simple things
The Panda update brought about a bigger emphasis on on page elements, but some simple ones. Make sure spelling and grammar are all correct, adverts are not intrusive (better yet not there!) and your code is nice and clean (use the W3C validator to check). These are all things that should already be there on a well designed site, but are sadly lacking in many…

- Engagement
The main point of the Panda update is that it would cut out low quality sites and spammy content. It therefore follows that high quality content will be engaging, and the website metrics will reflect this. Time on site, bounce rate and pages per visit are now all ranking factors, so as always ‘content is king’.

- Quality
As mentioned above, quality content is now the key. Information that will be well read, commented upon and shared via social media platforms is now more valuable than ever. This is what, in part, has contributed to the rise of infographics as a form of SEO, as they are vibrant and nice to look at, attract engagement of consumers and promote sharing around.
Infographics are by no means the only way of doing this, but ensure that whatever you write, you do so in detail and with knowledge. Article spinning and marketing sites which churn out rubbish content now have very little to no value whatsoever.

- Social
This is a metric that has been counted since before the Panda update, but has recently become even more valuable. Links and ‘shares’ from social media platforms are now a major ranking factor, but as with normal links it depends on the amount, variety, source and most of all power (or authority) of the account. One share from Lady Gaga’s Twitter account with her millions of followers will be far more valuable than 100 from no-power accounts.

Finally, in early November another update was rolled out giving greater power to fresh content. As with social signals, this has been a recognised ranking factor for a year or more, but this wide ranging update gives it even more power. Adding a blog to your site is a great way of getting more indexable content on your site, but now you need to make sure it is updated as often as possible. In my opinion, one post per day is now a minimum, and 3 or 4 would not be excessive at all.

All in all, good SEO companies shouldn’t be scared by the Panda update. If you conduct an ethical SEO campaign you should have been doing much of this all along, and if not, to be honest, you might well have deserved demotion….

Rob works for electric bed specialist Nexus DMS on their online marketing and SEO. He is a keen sportsman as well and loves football, squash and being outdoors.

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Optimising Your Website With Google PANDA Update In Mind is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

How To Run An Efficient E-commerce Business

John — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 10:13:09 +0000

With the internet constantly expanding it’s reach all over the world, e-commerce has been a booming market for several years now. With more and more of the population set to connect to the internet in the coming years, it’s a market that is only going to grow in size. Couple this with the huge increase in mobile or m-commerce and it’s still a great time to sell online.

Whether you’re converting your physical store to have online capabilities or starting out fresh with an online only store, there are several key things to consider. These are generally split into Design, Sales & Marketing and Distribution:

Design
In the ever more competitive world of online commerce, you need to make sure you have all the bases covered. If one part of the site is lacking, then it will have a drastic effect on the conversion rate. For instance, if you have an excellent website, but the ‘About Us’ page is blank, or a page goes to an error then it instantly looks unprofessional. In a world where people are generally sceptical about giving out payment details, an efficient e-commerce site need to make the customer feel safe and secure.

Make use of secure servers and security certificates wherever possible, and offer multiple payment options as well (e.g. Paypal). As mentioned above, make sure you either produce a mobile version of your site, or ensure that your site works on mobile devices; Browsershots.org is a great site for this. Generally, try and ensure that your site is quick to load, simple to use and looks professional; this is the best base you can have.

Sales & Marketing
Once you have the site up and running, you need to make yourself available to as many avenues as possible. SEO is an increasingly overrun market, so try and focus on a particular niche. This will allow you to put all your effort into a few keywords and focus all of your on-site optimisation and off site linkbuilding towards these. Make sure also to choose something that isn’t hugely competitive; if you’re going against Tesco, Ikea, Homebase and the like you’re never going to win.
Google Shopping is an excellent route for many, as may be an eBay shop. It really depends on what you’re selling, but SEO is not the only way. When a site is new, it will not have the power to rank for many terms you want, so substitute this with a Pay-per-Click campaign until you can.

Delivery
Finally, you have to make sure the product reaches the customer quickly and in good condition. The distribution and supply chain management can be the trickiest part of the whole process, but there are easy ways around it. For instance, drop shipping is now a more and more popular method of taking care of this, whereby the seller holds no stock at all, and simply passes the order onwards. However, if you intend to stock your own products you can look into a number of solutions:

- Franking services will allow you to send unlimited mail for a set monthly fee, especially useful for smaller packages.
- Many small delivery services offer ‘pick and pack’ and ‘white glove’ delivery services. This is where larger pallets of goods are broken down, repackaged and then delivered onwards. The ‘white glove’ part often refers to larger objects like sofas or televisions which are delivered inside and installed as well.

Once you’ve checked all of these off the list, you’ll be well on the way to running a efficient and profitable e-commerce site. The sky’s the limit!

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How To Run An Efficient E-commerce Business is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

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CommentLuv Premium Back On Sale With A Stack Of Great Bonuses

Karen — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 21:12:21 +0000

Remember sometime back when I posted about why I had chosen to upgrade to CommentLuv Premium, then the amazing WordPress plugin was on sale for a limited time before it’s official launcg date, well, it’s now back on SALE!

ON SALE NOW AT A SPECIAL SALE PRICE! - Bonuses and low price until 30th Nov

CommentLuv Premium has become extremely popular since it’s original release and it’s beta testers and new owners of the MUST HAVE PLUGIN have loved it so much they just can’t help shouting about it to their fellow blogging friends.

Boosting Comments And Social Networing With CommentLuv Premium

Those that have CommentLuv Premium have noticed an increase in comments as well as some of the sharing of their blog posts since using the plugin, I myself have noticed an amazing increase, which is what we all want for our blogs.

But it doesn’t stop there with the use of the Global CommentLuv Enabled Blog Search you can find other sites in your niche and comment on them leaving links back to your blog on theirs with the majority of the sites set to DoFollow.

You can also give your readers a chance to share your posts via Google+, FaceBook and Twitter and doing so they get the chance to select one post from up to 10 of their most recent blog posts to add on your site.

8 Plugins In 1 – Save Yourself On Plugin Space

By using CommentLuv Premium you can reduce the amount of plugins you have installed as CommentLuv Premium has 8 in 1.

CommentLUV Premium with Social Incentives (Twitter, Facebook and Google+)

GASP (Growmap Anti-Spambot Plugin)

Keyword Name (Similar to KeywordLuv)

Twitterlink Comments (Add those Twitter names to your comments)

DoFollow (A vast collection of options to make your comments DoFollow or Nofollow)

Top Commentators Widget (So thos commenting that have also shared the CommentLuv)

Trackback Validation Plugin (Beat that trackback Spam at it’s own game!)

No Self Pings (Stop your blog pinging itself, very handy)

The Low Sale Price And Bonuses Available Until 30th Nov

There are some amazing bonuses available when you get your hands on CommentLuv Premium, but they won’t be available for long, but I’ll let the creator of CommentLuv Andy bailey tell you about those in the best CommentLuv Premium video that he’s ever made

Already got CommentLuv Premium, then let everyone know what you think, not got it for your WordPress blog yet, then get it now!

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CommentLuv Premium Back On Sale With A Stack Of Great Bonuses is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

Introducing The New Blazing Minds Logo Designed By TheraisaK

Karen — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 16:56:56 +0000

Ok folks you may have seen the new logo already, specially on my Twitter (@BlazingMinds), but I thought it was time to introduce you all to the new Blazing Minds logo that has been designed by TheraisaK.

Why Get A New Logo?

Since starting Blazing Minds over three years ago, I have used the same image and thought it was about time that I had my own custom logo that everyone will see and hopefully come to love.

So I got in touch with TheraisaK, who also designed the new @SlappyBear logo as well, asked her to design a logo for Blazing Minds, that kept in the spirit of the red-haired avatar that everyone was used to and the result is something that I personally think is brilliant.

I must say a big, big thanks to Theraisa for the brilliant work that she has done on not only the Blazing Minds, but also on the Slappy Bear Logo as well. I think both look far better than what I originally had

Introducing The New Blazing Minds Logo

What Has Been Said About The New Blazing Minds Logo On Twitter

@BlazingMinds liking the New Blazing Logo! ;-)
October 13, 2011 11:22 pm via Twitter for iPhone ReplyRetweetFavorite
@limey59music
limey59music

@BlazingMinds love your new avatar!
October 14, 2011 3:49 pm via TweetDeck ReplyRetweetFavorite
@CommentLuv
Andy Bailey

@BlazingMinds Karen so cute your new avatar! :)
October 14, 2011 6:33 pm via TweetDeck ReplyRetweetFavorite
@sweetsfoods
sweetsfoods

@BlazingMinds wow karen, new twitter avatar? nice! blog redesign next?
October 15, 2011 1:48 pm via TweetDeck ReplyRetweetFavorite
@ronniedare
ronleyba

So what do you think of the new Blazing Minds Logo? Please let me know as I would love to hear what you think

Related articles

Ladies And Gentlemen Introducing The New Slappy Bear Logo (slappybear.co.uk)

Blazing Minds Blog Interview (generalsarge.com)

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Introducing The New Blazing Minds Logo Designed By TheraisaK is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

Why I Opted To Upgrade And Use CommentLuv Premium

Karen — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:02:07 +0000

I have to admit that over the years that I’ve been blogging I have become a big fan of CommentLuv and have had it on this blog since the very first day, yes folks I love it that much.

Recently Andy Bailey came up with CommentLuv Premium, so I jumped at the chance of getting my blogging hands on the latest incarnation of what has become one of the most popular plugins for any WordPress powered blog in the blogosphere.

So if you are a regular visitor here on Blazing Minds, then you will have seen the plugin in action, with several new gadgets for those commenting here to see, such as sharing the post and getting the chance to have dofollow links and up to 10 choices of their previous posts listed in with their comments.

Also the superb Keyword Name, giving the commentator the chance to add their website after their name in the name field when commenting.

8 Reasons You Should Be Using CommentLuv Premium

Not only do your commentators get these brilliant options when you are using CommentLuv Premium on your blog, but you also get 8 plugins in one, so you can deactivate a those plugins that do the same job and just have 1.

CommentLUV Premium with Social Incentives (Twitter, Facebook and Google+)

GASP (Growmap Anti-Spambot Plugin)

Keyword Name (Similar to KeywordLuv)

Twitterlink Comments (Add those Twitter names to your comments)

DoFollow (A vast collection of options to make your comments DoFollow or Nofollow)

Top Commentators Widget (So thos commenting that have also shared the CommentLuv)

Trackback Validation Plugin (Beat that trackback Spam at it’s own game!)

No Self Pings (Stop your blog pinging itself, very handy)

So as you can see this will certainly reduce the amount of plugins that you may have installed on your WordPress blog.

CommentLuv Premium Is Coming Very Soon!!!!

Soon Andy will launch CommentLuv Premium to the public and today you can now sign up to get an email as soon as CommentLuv Premium is ready to buy. So simply Stop by CommentLuv.com and leave your email to get on an “Early Bird List” and then get read for the next generation of what has probably become the most popular commenting, anti-spam and SEO plugin that WordPress bloggers have on their blogs.

There are so many bloggers using CommentLuv today that the odds are that you’ve seen it in action on the blogs that you may be visiting and commenting on, I personally swear by it and over the years that I have been blogging, CommentLuv has not only brought me traffic, but it has introduced me to some pretty amazing fellow bloggers, via the comments that have been made on my blog.

So come and join over 400,000 users that have utilised the power of CommentLuv, I know I have

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Why I Opted To Upgrade And Use CommentLuv Premium is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

Amazing HTML5 and CSS3 Experiments

John — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 10:00:44 +0000

The latest version of the web standard markup, HTML 5, was been greeted with a mixed reaction on it’s launch, but has gained grudging acceptance in the past year or so despite being an unfinished project. It’s aim to integrate multimedia functions is gaining traction, mainly due to people’s dislike of Flash. Apple has done its part to help this along through its ongoing fallout with Adobe, making sure that Flash is not supported in any of its new products.

What HTML5 has undoubtedly done is to provide some amazing browser based experiments, to show what’s really possible without flash. What practical use they have is yet to be seen, but it puts it out there for people to explore and play around with. There are already some amazing canvas experiments, here are some of the best and other interesting HTML5 sites:

HTML5 Versions
- Angry Birds – chrome.angrybirds.com
The world-beatingly popular iPhone game has been released on just about every other platform to date, so why not a HTML5 version. Work will never be boring again when you can secretly be playing Angry Birds…

- YouTube – youtube.com/html5
Want to use YouTube on your iPhone or iPad? YouTube now offer an HTML5 only version, so you can watch all the normal offerings they have without the aid of Flash. You have to opt in on the page above, but that’s it, click it and you’re off.

Games
- Agent 8Ball – agent8ball.com
In a slant on the classic pool game, this has been combined with a very thin secret agent twist. Pot all the balls within the time limit to move to the next level, and with intuitive mouse controls it’s actually really good fun! The graphics are great, and all in all it’s a very impressive bit of HTML5 design.

- Manic Spaceman – 8weekgame.shawson.co.uk/manicspaceman
If you’re more of a platform gamer then you’ll love this. Manic Spaceman was an experiment by a devoted fan with a love of coding, who set out to build his own browser game. The result was this game, which was one of the earliest developed with the new code. It suffers a little, but is very addictive and great fun.

- Hakim.se Breakout – hakim.se/experiments/html5/breakdom
Hakim is a site that specialises in HTML5 experiments, and they have a whole host of excellent stuff. Amongst it is a new take on the classic ‘Breakout’ game where you use your paddle to bounce the ball and break the blocks. This one has been replaced by different types of check boxes, appropriate for a web version we think.

- Google Pacman – www.google.com/pacman
Many people will have seen this famous ‘Google Doodle’ that appeared on the front page in May this year. It’s a clever bit of coding that mimicked the arcade classic of the late 70′s, and was fully playable. It’s still available in the archives of Google on the URL above so go and have a play!

Music
- Arcade Fire, Wilderness Downtown – thewildernessdowntown.com
To complement the release of their new track, ‘We Used To Wait’, Arcade Fire teamed up with artist Chris Milk to make an interactive music video. When you input your childhood address, Google Streetview takes pictures from your hometown and creates a personalised video experience which unfolds in several windows. This creates a wonderful complimentary experience to a great track.

- Drum Kit – randomthink.net/labs/html5drums
Instead of buying the real thing, why not simply practice on a virtual version of the classic drum pad. With lots of different sounds, beats and a loop feature it’s actually a lot of fun.

Other Interesting
- Art Of Stars – nakshart.com
Have you ever wondered what constellations are above you in the night sky? Now you can pan around and discover where Ursa Major, Orion, Saturn and hundreds of other stars or constellations will be located at any time of the year, all through the medium of HTML5. It is also a great way to discover the nexus between stars, and you can begin to discover how they were originally named.

- SketchPad – mugtug.com/sketchpad
Based on the HTML5 ‘canvas’, this is an advanced drawing app that gives a lot of different functionality and some Photoshop-esque features and tools. I’m not entirely sure it’s that useful with the likes of GIMP around, but if you need to do a very quick drawing it’s certainly a viable option.

- Spiderman CSS3 animation – optimum7.com/css3-man
This has now become something of an early benchmark for what can be done with CSS3, and has been blogged around a lot. It’s a fairly basic Spiderman animation, but the impressive thing is that it’s done purely with CSS3.

- Hakim.se Animated 404 Page – hakim.se/experiments/html5/404/netmag.html
An excellent idea from Hakim labs again, an animated 404 error page. Upon entering an incorrect URL the screen blacks out and eyes slowly appear, then wink at you. A little unnerving, but a fun take on the much designed 404 page.

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Amazing HTML5 and CSS3 Experiments is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

Why Restaurants Are Moving Towards Social Media And Mobile Apps [INFOGRAPHIC]

John — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 06:56:12 +0000

Social media, mobile browsing and smartphone applications have all seen a phenomenal rise in popularity and usage over the last decade; in fact they’re now so prevalent that business can no longer afford to ignore them as a marketing avenue, and restaurants are no different. The following infographic, produced by Restaurant App Engines, highlights why more and more restaurants are moving towards social media, mobile browsing and mobile apps:

Related posts:

The Value Of Mobile Payments [INFOGRAPHIC]

Social Media Is Big Business, But Where’s The Money Coming From?

The Importance of using Social Media when you Guest Blog!

Why Restaurants Are Moving Towards Social Media And Mobile Apps [INFOGRAPHIC] is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

FourSquare – Love It or Hate It, It Can Save You Some Money!

Karen — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 08:37:33 +0000

FourSquare is one of those sites that people to love or hate and even though some may think it’s a complete waste of time, think again!

I first started using FourSquare when I saw some fellow friends on twitter mentioning where they were, so I stopped by, signed up and didn’t do much about it after that.

Some time later when I got my BlackBerry Curve I started delving in to FourSquare a bit more often and even though the Curve 8520 doesn’t have GPS, FourSquare still tries to find locations via cell towers.

Grabbing A Special Via FourSquare

One thing that I did start noticing after a while were there seemed to be a lot more “specials” appearing at some of the places that I was visiting, some for being the mayor and others for the amount of times you have visited.

As an example, our local cinema, @ApolloCinemas Rhyl, had a refurbish and they listed themselves on FourSquare and as it happened they also set up two specials for those that visit the cinema and “check in” with their mobile phone via an app.

The “Mayorship” gives you a BOGOF offer (Buy One Get One Free) so this has been great for me recently after becoming the Mayor, giving me the chance to get some reviews up here on Blazing Minds of some of the latest movies and saving me a bit of my hard-earned cash.

Another one of their specials is for every third check-in you get free popcorn and a drink, yet another saving for any movie goer

But Wait There’s More!

Another favourite place of mine is Wetherspoon and by becoming mayor of your local Wetherspoon you will get 20% off your meals (excluding drinks), so yet another saving

There are so many places springing up on FourSquare now that there are bound to be some specials near you in your town that you can take advantage of and in the ending saving you a little cash to spend on something else to pamper yourself with

Don’t Become A Nuisance With Your FourSquare Check-Ins!

This is one thing that I guarantee will lose you followers on Twitter when you are using FourSquare, don’t keep telling everyone where you are at every single shop or venue as this will really annoy those that are following you and some may even block you on Twitter.

The best thing to do, is if you are going to be checking in often is to do the following:

When you find the venue etc and click Check-In, un-tick the “Twitter” box or even the “Tell My Friends” box, this will mark you as “off the grid” but you will still be able to earn your mayorship’s etc without overly annoying your followers.

Also remember that it doesn’t matter how many time you check-in to one place in a day, it will not count towards your rewards, only one check-in to a place a day is counted.

Keeping Your Specials

It’s simple really if you visit somewhere often in the week, then check-in and with a little luck you can stay as the mayor, giving you the places special.

If you lose your mayorship to someone else it may take you around a week to get it back, but that’s all the fun of it really

So To Cap It All Off!

Don’t keep telling your followers where you are.

Only Check-in to the same place once a day, checking in several times in one day doesn’t help.

Have fun and don’t take it all too seriously

So there you go, as you can see there is a little more to FourSquare than you first may have thought

Related articles

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FourSquare – Love It or Hate It, It Can Save You Some Money! is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

Can Apple’s Steve Jobs Get Privacy with His Health Issues?

Business.com — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 08:53:33 +0000

Following his announcement last week that he was resigning as CEO of Apple and passing along the duties to right-hand man Tim Cook, Steve Jobs may have hoped he’d be able to become an afterthought in the minds of many observers. Unfortunately, that doesn’t appear to be the case.

Jobs, who went public a while back that he had been battling pancreatic cancer, showed up on the celebrity Web site TMZ in two photos looking gaunt, pale and sickly.

So, the big question is whether or not the photos are authentic or if they were doctored?

According to TMZ officials, the picture was snapped last Friday by Pacific Coast News (who reportedly sold it exclusively to the celebrity site), some 48 hours after Jobs announced he was stepping down at Apple, stating he had reached that point and time where he could no longer give 100 percent to his position.

An email from a representative at Pacific Coast News that went out to different media outlets claims, “These have not been doctored in anyway, I can assure you, regardless what you may have read online.”

Jobs had prior surgery to remove a tumor after being diagnosed with a rare type of pancreatic cancer eight years ago and had a liver transplant in 2009 in a further effort to prevent the spread of the disease.

While Jobs had the presence of mind to go public with his cancer battle, was he prepared for the rampant speculation that his battle may not be over and that in fact is what led him to turn over the CEO position to Cook?

Whether or not that is the case, readers of TMZ did not waste time in commenting on the reported photos.

“Leave Steve alone @TMZ. You guys are low as you can go. This is what’s called ‘journalism’ these days. Seriously disgusted,” brian-tong tweeted.

Some skeptics of the photos note that one can tell they were doctored due to warping and repasting. The photo also appears to show another man helping Jobs stand up as he looks off in the distance. Again, do we have the real thing or a fake?

Either way, this incident just goes to show you that the life of a celebrity, be they an athlete, politician or a business icon, will play itself out in the media rightly or wrongly.

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Can Apple’s Steve Jobs Get Privacy with His Health Issues? is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

How Can You Use Video To Enhance Your SEO Activities?

BigDaddyCash — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 06:10:45 +0000

Image via CrunchBase

Putting your website at the top of Google’s results is the Holy Grail for anyone in internet marketing and search engine optimisation. Of course it depends on the quality of your content on the website you’re trying to optimise, your link building activities, reviews, social media presence and all the things we know we have to do to create a White Hat campaign which doesn’t get penalised by Panda Farmers or have a bad reaction to Caffeine.

But of course there is a way of guaranteeing you get to the top of Google’s results pages which requires little more than intelligence, wit, an idea for a story and a video camera or phone.

People forget that Google will put videos which match your search terms at the top of the SERPs as they’re usually rather blinkered by the notion that you need content and lots of back links to really be doing SEO. While that’s true enough, if you can produce a good video to go onto your site which brings richness and authority you’ll find that you’re getting more traffic than you ever had before.

And it doesn’t matter if your website’s core area of business doesn’t lend itself well to video. Indeed, the less suited to video the better, the paradox here is that if no-one else is making film based upon your core activities then the more findable you’re going to be. However, knocking together a five minute piece which looks like a bad seventies cinema commercial isn’t going to make you any friends! If, on the other hand you manage to produce some well thought out, informative and useful video content for your site, something that’s valuable and shareable the value will be far more than the cost of production. And given that high quality film is now available on most mobile phones which is then immediately uploadable as well as many easy to learn editing suites, producing and hosting video cost next to nothing but time, planning and a few great ideas.

Click On The Picture For Some Seventies Style

There are a few details that it’s important to remember when making your video, no matter how much you’re going to pay to produce it. If you can cover one or more of these key points in your video the better chance it has of becoming shareable and interesting. The point isn’t to try and deliberately create linkbait at this stage but the more popular your content is the more valuable it will be.

If you’re on a budget you clearly won’t be able to afford locations and effects, without this it’s still possible to make informative content. SEOmoz produce a Whiteboard Friday where Rand Fishkin simply stands in front of the eponymous whiteboard and presents to camera. Few ideas are so simple or effective.

If your site doesn’t lend itself to such a presentation then there are other things it’s important your video contains.

Be Funny. If your subject is very dry people won’t want to watch to the end or ever share the content. Of course humour is subjective so what you find hilarious might induce embarrassed squirming from some viewers but if you can squeeze a few gags into an informative advertorial style film clip then at least you’ll be hitting those that ‘get’ the gag.

Try being sexy. I don’t mean gratuitously overt or indeed sexist but people like to watch people. If those people happen to be attractive then so much the better. The sexy/sexist balance is a tricky judgment call: again it’s subjective and go too far and you’ll offend rather than entertain.

If you don’t think your funny or sexy then try being shocking! I don’t mean rude, dangerous or politically incorrect but a video with a surprise at the end will always keep people interested.

If you’re going to try to be entertaining, show what a fun company you are, express your personalities and people will feel the know you, rather than just regarding you as another website or commercial concern. You can either demonstrate a project that can be carried out in the home or office.

If you do want your video to go viral then the easiest and quickest way to do that is to make something cute and lovable. Get a kitten or a puppy, make it do something adorable and put it on your site. Few things are simpler!

Click The Pic

You might not have the full compliment of a Philippine prison to dance to pop songs for you but making something amazing, creative and fun will drive people to your site, the more people that see it the more conversions you’re going to make, particularly if your amazing content is related in some way, no matter how tenuous to your site and your core activities.

@DanCash is a feature writer who writes frequently on cross cultural training and leadership. As business and promotion extends over many territories these days with people working in virtual teams which rarely meet in the real world one universal common is that people everywhere love to watch video.

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How Can You Use Video To Enhance Your SEO Activities? is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

Bashful Britons Shy Of Using LinkedIn And Facebook To Look For Work

BigDaddyCash — Wed, 11 May 2011 15:09:50 +0000

Image via CrunchBase

While all advice is telling them the opposite, Britons looking for work, either because they need a new job or want to get out of their current position are failing to embrace social media as a part of their jobseeking activities.

A survey carried out by recruitment agency Kelly surveyed around 97,000 people in 30 countries and found that Britain is in the 25 place for people exploiting resources such as LinkedIn and Facebook to look for jobs. Indonesia came at the top of the table with 49% of the survey respondents saying they searched for jobs using social media. That was only 20% in the UK.

What does that mean? Well, only 1% of people in the UK have found their current employment by using their contacts on social media. The reason people are reluctant to search and engage with social media is that that are afraid of the negative effects that this activity would have on their career, according to 26% of those surveyed while one third admitted to deliberately ‘self censoring’ themselves online.

Katie Ivie, HR director with Kelly Services UK points out that: “Now is the point that candidates should be developing a stronger on-line presence on professional networks to take advantage of the opportunities they have to offer and stand out from the crowd.”

Lets hope these figures improve as the use of web version 2.0 is only going to become more important as a resource driving the recruitment industry.

If you are currently looking for a new role make sure you take advantage of every opportunity the net has to offer. There are some activities you can undertake and some housekeeping which is vital.

If you don’t already have one, start a LinkedIn account, complete the registration in full and be as honest as you can. Invite to connect with everyone you’ve ever worked or been in education with and ask for recommends. Being polite isn’t going to get you anywhere and if you suffer from the traditional British reticence to brag you’ll get nowhere. People are on LinkedIn expressly because they want to find new work or new employees so make yourself known to them.

Get involved in forums in the fields where you would like to work as well as those you have experience of. Get involved in conversations and ask questions. I’ve even heard of people asking business chiefs if they could come over and visit the offices just to look around. Showing that amount of interest is sure to impress.

Another strategy that jobseekers should adopt is to become invaluable. Become the Go To Girl/Guy; put people in different groups in touch with each other rather than sitting idly by thinking “that’s funny because X is looking for some-one like Y” and doing nothing about it.

If you’re going to look for your next job on Facebook take care to remove any pictures and comments which are going to prejudice a prospective employer against you. They’re not supposed to judge your aptitude for a role based upon any social media entries but if they read about how wrecked you got mid week and see pictures of you behaving irresponsibly it will still have an influence nonetheless.

Dan Cash wrote this. While he was a student and otherwise unemployed in Brighton takeaway food was something of a luxury. If you’re out of work and fancy some Indian Brighton has some cheap and delicious curry houses.

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Bashful Britons Shy Of Using LinkedIn And Facebook To Look For Work is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter

How Can You Put YOUR Business On Google’s First Page?

BigDaddyCash — Fri, 06 May 2011 12:00:14 +0000

Image via CrunchBase

Today, the easiest way to start your own business is to develop a website through which you can sell your product or service. It’s becoming less and less necessary to have a high street presence and far more important to have a website through which you can conduct ecommerce. Since the internet has everything you can imagine, and many many things that you couldn’t, and every kind of retailer, from multinational conglomerates to artisanal individuals making their goods in their living room vying for your attention you need to join them. But how do you go about it?

Do you want something tailored or off the peg?

Today many SMEs run on WordPress, it’s a very easy to use CMS which is free at entry level yet can be paid for so that you can have your own .com. It, and its competitors are both extremely powerful and flexible as well as having cost benefits which beat bespoke websites. Going with a bespoke website might be necessary if you have very specific needs but the costs are high and can put you in the position of having to rely solely on your developer for any changes that you might need to make in the future. If you do need to go with a specialist developer make sure they use a well recognised software package so that if you need additional work done and your original developer isn’t available you won’t have to seek out the only other person in a 500 mile radius who knows how to program it.

Add richness to your store.

If you can add features and benefits to your website you’ll attract more visitors, making your site sticky and easy to navigate and you’ll see those visitors becoming conversions. Your product might be a great stand alone but giving people an added incentive to visit your site will tempt people away from your competitors if they can’t offer the same.

Put some life in your site.

Google likes sites that have been around for some time but you don’t want a site the looks old. Refreshing your on-site copy regularly gives Google the impression of activity and quality. Department stores change their copy on a daily basis as their product offers and descriptions change, If you can change your onsite copy a couple of times a week, with industry news, product descriptions, a blog or even a feed of your work related twitter.

Links and likes.

Once you have a site it’s important to implement some basic SEO. If you don’t promote your site then it doesn’t matter how good your product is, if you don’t shout about it you’ll find yourself languishing around page 25 of Google’s results pages. Just Google ‘SEO tips’ and the best ones will, by nature of their being the best SEO, be at the top of your results. Applying just a few of these methods will see you racing up the SERPs. You should also put your details on every directory you can find that has anything at all to do with your field of endeavour, not only does this make you findable in the directories, it’s very good for your SEO if all the information that’s available on you is as up to date as possible.

Use the best tools.

Getting to know how to use packages like Google’s Webmaster Tools, rank checker and Google Analytics will help you in your promotional activities too. You might not want to become an authority on promoting websites when your business lies in making handmade jewelry but that would be like having a shop and not taking care of your window display. You have to make your website attractive not only to your human viewers but to Google’s spiders and robots too.

Get recommended.

Putting up testimonials and reviews from your customers is a really good way to give your site value. People buy from people so making giving your site a big dollop of The Human Touch.

Dan Cash has become a recluse since discovering you can buy EVERYTHING over the internet there are takeaways in Cardiff that take orders by email and pizza delivery in Southampton who will build your pizza to your exact requirements any time of the day or night.

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How Can You Put YOUR Business On Google’s First Page? is a post from Blazing Minds Copyright 2008-2011. Please link back when using this source material.

If you enjoy reading my blog, then please support me with a donation and Follow @BlazingMinds on Twitter