Stop E-business Frustration» How-to Guide

Using OpenOffice.org Draw to draw Diagram

kimloon — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 10:10:05 +0000

Is there any free software out there can be used to create professional looking diagram?

Recently, I need to draw block diagrams for some presentations and reports. I began to explore using the free vector-based diagramming program OpenOffice.org Draw to create such diagrams.

I have used other expensive vector-based diagramming program before. Comparing to these programs, OpenOffice.org Draw produces professional looking diagrams to be pasted in the documents or presentations without the money cost involved.

In general, I find that OpenOffice.org Draw is quite easy to use. It took me some time to get myself familiar to the new interface. This software calls its functions differently. For example, instead of “order”, it is called “arrange” for deciding which item to be in front or at the back.

Other the naming difference, there are very few difference as compared to other vector-based diagramming software.

OpenOffice.org Draw, being part of the suite, provides easy export to Adobe PDF files. This allows us to easily put these files in the public domain without the worry that other would modify it.

There are also some areas which I think the OpenOffice.org Draw can improve on.

One area is the lack of “single click to rotate 90 degree” function. OpenOffice.org Draw does provide the free hand rotate function. But sometime, we do need to rotate the object at 90 degree for alignment. It would be some issue for people like me who has poor sense of alignment.

Overall, OpenOffice.org Draw is a very useful and easy to use vector-based diagramming program without the money cost. It has helped me to produce professional looking diagrams.

OpenOffice.org suite is available for free downloading at http://www.openoffice.org/

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

How to use Free Software to Convert Microsoft Office files to PDF Files

kimloon — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:33:41 +0000

Sometime we need to put a document file on the web for circulation. And the most common file format to be used to do so is pdf file.

Most of us write our documents using Microsoft Office Word. Unfortunately, Microsoft Office does not provide export to pdf file facility in the package. We may need to purchase other software to do so.

Alternatively, we can also convert the file online. This will be a time consuming process if we want to convert a very big file.

There are free software packages available on the net which allow us to convert the document files to pdf format.

I personally like OpenOffice.org.

First it is free. Second, it can be used to edit Microsoft Office files. Thirdly, it has almost all the functions provided by Microsoft Office. And of course, it can be used to convert Microsoft Office files to pdf format.

What I usually do is, I would open the file using the OpenOffice.org equivalent software. Then I would easily export the file to pdf format, with a few clicks.

The equivalent of the OpenOffice.org software is as follows:
MS Word – Writer
MS Excel – Calc
MS Powerpoint – Impress
MS Access – Base

The result is quite amazing. Once I have to upload a very long report. The author has converted the original 27MByte file into a 17MByte pdf file. When I converted the same source file using Writer, the new pdf file is now only 2MByte.

OpenOffice.org is a free software which not only can be used to edit Microsoft Office Document, it can also be used to convert Office files to pdf format.

OpenOffice.org is available for download at http://www.openoffice.org/

If you like what you read, please post post your comment below or subscribe to my blog via RSS or E-mail on new content.

“How to use Free Software to Convert Microsoft Office files to PDF Files” is brought to you by http://stopebizfrustration.com/

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Avoiding Website Image Copyright Problem

kimloon — Sun, 31 May 2009 16:46:21 +0000

Sometime back, a friend shared with me that he received a bill of $3,000 for accidentally used a copyrighted image from an image agency site. And recently, I read on the paper that there was a case where an image agency sent a legal document to a owner of a commercial site for using a copyrighted image without permission.

As internet marketeers, we are on a risk of using a copyright image on our sites and having to face a legal bill for this. This is especially so because these images are readily available. We just need to use a search engine and thousands will appear. I am not a professional in the legal aspect, but the followings are some knowledge I have to avoid potential issue with copyrighted images.

1. Microsoft Clipart for Office

Microsoft provides free cliparts for use with Microsoft Office. This provide a convenience way which we can easily search for cliparts suitable for our sites and marketing materials.

I read terms and conditions for use of these cliparts. The cliparts are free for internal presentations use and for non-commercial uses. And these, however, are not to be used for commercial purposes or as part of a logo.

2. Free Cliparts

There are also some free clipart available on the internet. One example is the Open Clipart site. This site aims to create an archive of clip art that can be used for free for any use.

According to the FAQ on “What limitations are there in how I can use the clipart?“, “There are no limitations, you can do whatever you wish with it.“.

This is a good news for Internet Marketeers or any commercial sites owners who wish to have lots of graphics in their sites.

Copyrighted image can be a tricky and troublesome issue to tackle with. Luckily these are some knowledge which I have to avoid this issue.

If you like what you read, please post post your comment below or subscribe to my blog via RSS or E-mail on new content.

“Avoiding Website Image Copyright Problem” is brought to you by http://stopebizfrustration.com

Content Management System for Website Some years ago, I was approached to be one of...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

5 Simple Steps to Improve Your Affiliate Offer

kimloon — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:46:32 +0000

As affiliate marketers, we’re fortunate in that we don’t have as many ‘Achilles heels’ as the merchants who own and deliver the products we promote for them. Both our investments and our risks tend to be lower.

However, we do have one significant ‘weak’ spot, and that’s in how far we can go in improving ‘the offer’. There are certain things we simply can’t do. For example, we don’t have the authority to offer discounts or deliver upgrades.

But, this ‘weakness’ doesn’t mean we’re stuck with ‘weak offers’! In fact, I can think of at least 5 ways to improve any offer, and really send our sales soaring:

1. Increase The PERCEPTION of Value -

The real value of any product is always in the customer’s mind, and you can increase that perception in dozens of ways. For example, you guide the customer through a comparison of similar products, while pointing out why the one you’re promoting is really the best deal for the money.

2. Demonstrate the Immediate Benefits -

Show the customer how they can put the product to use from the moment they buy it. You should already own your own copy of most of the products you promote. So, create a tutorial or some way of showcasing the results you’ve gotten from the product.

3. Give More of Yourself On a Personal Level –

Similar to Step 2 – There’s always added value in social proof. Discuss your own experience surrounding the questions, problems and ultimate solutions in regards to the product at hand. Empathize with the customer’s position and point out the things you share in common.

4. Put Them At Ease –

Your relationship to the merchant should enable you to give the customer a sense of security in making the purchase. Let them know about the product’s guarantee and/or refund policy. Let them know the transaction is secure. You want to remove as much of the risk as possible from the purchase.

5. Provide Additional Incentives –

Check with the merchant first to make sure you’re allowed to do this. Its usually no problem when you’re promoting things like e-books, membership sites, etc.. You can really sweeten up an offer when you add your own products to the mix. E.g., “order this e-book, and I’ll throw in a free copy of this other product over here..”

So, you see, all it takes is a little creativity to add value to any affiliate offer. Use the 5 steps and you may even blow the merchant’s offer clear out of the water!

About the author:
Want to make real money online? Ewen Chia is giving you over $1,000 in advanced step-by-step money-making videos to teach you how. Claim yours now before it’s too late…

This article is provided by Affiliate of the month.

If you like what you read, please subscribe to my blog via RSS or E-mail on new content.

Ewen Chia’s Secret Affiliate Weapon 2.0 – Creating Passive Income through Internet Want to generate passive income through the internet? The super...
Learn Affiliate Marketing Step-by-Step with GVO During the course of learning affiliate marketing, many beginners face...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

How to Upgrade Hard Drive Stress Free

kimloon — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:40:13 +0000

It was time to upgrade my Hard Drive or Harddisk. I had outgrown my hard drive capability. My hard drive was running out of space. I have too much photos files in my laptop, document, working files etc in my hard drive. As much as possible, I had copied most of the unused files to an external drive. But it was not working for me. I still needed working space.

Upgrading or replacing the hard drive was the only option left.

In the past, replacing or upgrading hard drive required preparing for the data backup, hardware replacement, re-install the programs and finally, data restore. The process would take hours.

So, most people, like myself, would prefer simply add another hard drive to the PC.

But mine is a laptop. A laptop usually has only one internal hard drive slot. Furthermore two hard drives meant more power and shorter battery life.

The following was the stress free method I used to upgrade and replace my current hard drive in my laptop.

1. Check the current Hard Drive Interface and Maximum Hard Drive Size Supported

This is the most important step before doing anything. We need to check the hard drive interface and the maximum size of hard drive supported by the PC or laptop.

We do not want to buy a hard drive and find that it could not fit the PC or laptop. We can easily do so by checking the laptop specification.

I did the fail safe approach. I opened the hard drive compartment, took out the hard drive and checked it physically on the interface. I also went to the shop and asked for the maximum size supported.

2. Purchase the Hard Drive and an USB External Drive Casing

Because most laptops support only one hard drive, we need to have some form of mechanism to transfer the data from the current drive to the new hard drive. The simplest and cheapest method I know of was to get an USB external hard drive casing. I got one casing at less than $15.00 at a computer hardware shop.

3. Connect the External Hard Drive

I installed the new hard drive into the casing, plug it to the USB socket of my laptop and let windows detect the drive. As most new hard drives are not initialized, you will only see the notification that it is installed, but could not find the new drive in the Windows Explorer.

You can find the new unallocated drive in “Computer Management” under “Administration Tools” of the “Control Panel”. Creating a new partition is not required. We need to delete this partition in the next step.

4. Perform the Data Transfer

This process would take a very long time for the data transfer. It could take hours depending on the size of the existing and new hard drives.

I am using Acronis Migrate Easy to perform this process. I simply run the program, select “Disk Clone” and following the instructions. Everything is automatic.

Please note that you would need to re-boot the PC at least once during the process.

5. Replace the New Hard Drive and Boot Up

Replace the Hard Drive and Boot Up.

Now I have a new Hard Drive and plenty of free space for me to work with.

This is the 5-steps stress free method of Upgrading the Hard Drive in my laptop. The whole process was easy and straight forward.

Acronis Migrate Easy 7.0 is the very solution you need if you are planning to upgrade to a larger hard disk! Now during the migration procedure there is no need to worry about your priceless data – be sure that it will stay safe and secure. Plus your OS, programs and settings will remain unchanged as well. In addition, Migrate Easy creates, copies and even resizes the transferred partitions so that they could fit the new hard disk size.
Click here to save trouble, energy and time to upgrade your hard drive without any stress

If you have benefited from this how-to and like what you read, please subscribe to my blog via RSS or E-mail on new content.

“How to Upgrade Hard Drive Stress Free” is brought to you by http://stopebizfrustration.com/

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

How to Generate Recycled Traffic Using Automated E-mail Update on New Content

kimloon — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:42:29 +0000

We can easily generate recycled traffic to our website by simply providing an E-mail Newsletter Subscription.

Feedburner, on top of providing free RSS subscription, it is also providing a free e-mail newsletter subscription service. It will automatically send out e-mail to subscribers whenever there is new content on the site for that day. If there is no new content, it would not send out.

Using this service, we can easily generate recycled traffic by informing the subscribers any new updates on the website without any additional manual work to send out the e-mail.

New Content Update Email Subscription

The following is a How-To guide on how we can easily add an E-mail Update Subscription Opt-in form on Wordpress Blog using the Free Service provided by Feedburner.
(You may need to click on the image for bigger version)

First, we need to create an account at Feedburner if we have not done so. Please click on this link on “How to Add Feedburner RSS Subscription to Wordpress Blog” to find out how create an account.

In the Feedburner Screen, select the feed title you want to configure.

Select the “Publicize” tag and then “Email Subscription”. If this service is not activated, click on “Activate” to activate the service.

Upon activated, it will bring you to the screen where you can easily get the code you need to put in the widget.

Select the code in the box illustrated in the following pictures. Right-click and select “copy” to copy the code.

Copy the Code

Now to put in the blog, we go back to the Blog Administrations. Select “Widget” under “Appearance”.

At the selected Tool Bar (remember to click “Show”, after selecting), add “Text” (“Arbitrary text or HTML”).

Click on “Edit” to edit the text. Paste the code in the box empty box. You may want to add a title. Once it is done, click on “Done” and “Save Changes”.

Now you have paste a opt-in form on the blog to allow visitors to subscribe to New Content Update via E-mail. You can generate Recycled Traffic through sending the subscribers update via E-mail automatically whenever there is a new content on the blog.

If you have benefited from this how-to and like what you read, please subscribe to my blog via RSS or E-mail on new content.

Please click here to get your FREE report on how to solve your trouble getting traffic.

“How to Generate Recycled Traffic Using Automated E-mail Update on New Content” is brought to you by http://stopebizfrustration.com/

Content Management System for Website Some years ago, I was approached to be one of...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

How to Add Feedburner RSS Subscription to Wordpress Blog

kimloon — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 11:49:43 +0000

Wordpress Blog has a RSS subscription build in. The issues with the build-in subscription are, by default, it is located at a small corner, hardly noticeable by most. And secondly, it does not provide any tracking means.

Wordpress Default RSS Subscription

I strongly recommend Feedburner, a free service available. It provides more than a RSS subscription. It provides E-mail subscription for updates and tracking of subscribers.

The following is the guide to get started using Feedburner.
(You may need to click on the image for bigger version)

Visit Feedburner Website – www.feedburner.com

Create an account or login using Google Account.

Feedburner Page. Sign in or Register

Create a feed by entering the blog address on the space and click on “Next”.
Follows the instructions on the screen.

At the “Enhance Your Stats” Page, you might wish to select addition features provided to track your leads.

You will be given a new feed address, highlighted at the red box.

New RSS Subscription Feed Address Provided by Feedburner

To insert the Feedburner Subscription Option in the Blog.

Still at the Feedburner Page, click on the “Publicize” tag and then click on the “Chicklet Chooser”

Scroll down to the box below “Copy the HTML below for use in your own templates:”. Select all in the box, right-click on it and select “Copy”

Copy the code provided

Go back to the Blog Administrations. Select “Widget” under “Appearance”.

At the selected Tool Bar (remember to click “Show”, after selecting), add “Text” (“Arbitrary text or HTML”).

Click on “Edit” to edit the text. Paste the code in the box empty box. You may want to add a title. Once it is done, click on “Done” and “Save Changes”.

Add the Code in Blog Widget

And now you have a BIG RSS Subscription Box on your blog. It allows your readers to easily locate and subscribe to your RSS Feed.

If you have benefited from this tutorial feel free to share it and post it on your blog or comment below.

TIRED OF HYPE? FIND HOW YOU GET REAL TRAFFIC TODAY!
It’s no doubt that you will need traffic for your online business. Many websites online are making use of this simple tactic to get tons of targeted traffic to their site. Find out more here..

This article is brought to you by stopebizfrustration.com.

Wordpress iFrame Attack and Security Issue Recently, Joel Therien of GoGVO.com sent us an email on...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I Can’t Find the External Drive in My Windows

kimloon — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 04:17:14 +0000

When we plug in our external drive (e.g. thumbdrive, external hard drive, SD Card etc) in to the PC/laptop, there is seen to be some activities that Windows is accessing the drive. But this is nothing happening on the screen. When we open the Windows Explorer, we can’t find the external drive or media.

We are wondering, what actually happened. Is the external drive damaged or worse, the USB port is damaged.

There is a possibility that the Windows could not automatically assign the drive letter to the removable media. The followings are the steps to manually assign the drive letter to the external media.

1. Insert the external drive. Wait for a while for the Windows to detect it.

2. Go to “Control panel” and go to the “Administrative Tools”. If the control panel is set to classic view, just need to double click on the icon. If the control panel is set to “Category View”, then we need to select “Performance and Maintenance” and then go to the “Administrative Tools”.

Control Panel - Classic View

3. In the “Administrative Tools” view, double click on the “Computer Management”.

Administrative Tools Window

4. In the “Computer Management”, on the left folder view, select “Storage” and then “Disk Management”.

Computer Management Window

5. Locate your Memory Card. Right click on it and select “Change Drive Letter and Paths…”

Select the "Change Drive Letter and Paths..."

6. Follow the instruction to assign it to another Drive letter. Make sure that this drive letter is not used by any other media, e.g. Hard drive or CD.

Changing the Drive Letter

If the process is successful, Windows would automatically prompt on external drive action.

This article is brought to you by stopebizfrustration.com.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

How To Avoid Spam With Akismet

kimloon — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 10:48:48 +0000

This Tutorial is Part of Atomic Blogging ( A Step By Step Guide to Blogging )

What you see above are the number of Spam messages I get so far on my blog! It’s HUGE! Arent they ignoring? To avoid and prevent all this spam you must use Akismet – A Free Plugin to avoid spam for your blog.

Before I start, Akismet is a free open source spam program online to help fight spam for wordpress owners.

Just follow the following steps to get started to prevent Spam on your blog.

To install & setup Akismet for your blog first you need to go to your Plugin panel in your Control Panel in wordpress found at http://www.(yourdomain).com/wp-admin/

Follow the steps above to activate Akismet.

After you have activated all the Plugins you should see the above message just click on the link enter your Wordpress.com API Key.

To get your API Key, all you need to do is go to www.wordpress.com and sign up for a free account, the API Key will be email to you when you sign up a free account.

When you have sign up for a wordpress.com account you can find the API key when you click on My Profile. Example how a API Key looks like is fbd655933fa6. Please use your own API Key and don’t ever share your API it is like a password for you =)

So once you got the API Key from Wordpress.com, just key in the Key in the box and click on Update Options in your own blog!

You will know you have successfully installed Akismet when the green word appear as above. And you are done! NO MORE SPAM for your blog!

To get more step by step tutorials, I highly recommend you click here to grab more tutorials =)

If you have benefited from this tutorial feel free to share it and post it on your blog or comment below.

“How To Avoid Spam With Akismet” is brought to you by http://stopebizfrustration.com/

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

How to convert Adobe (pdf) file to image file?

kimloon — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:11:39 +0000

There are cases when we want to take a snap shot of a Adobe Reader (pdf) file. Or we see some content in a pdf file and wish to convert a portion as an image file.

If you have running Windows with at least Office 2003, this is a very simple process.

1. open Microsoft Office Pictures Manager. Select Thumbnails view. Make sure that you are in the directory/folder where you want to store the file.

2. In the Adobe Reader, at the top pull down menu, go to “Tools”, “Select & Zoom” and then “Snapshot Tool”.

3. Use this tool to select and copy the image.

4. Over at the Microsoft Office Pictures Manager, Paste the image. It will automatically create a new bmp file.

5. If the created file is too small, repeat 3 and 4 with larger zoom at Adobe Reader.

Please note that, some Adobe Reader file can be password protected to prevent copying.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.