Finding the Perfect Image - Google Images & Google Swirl

When you're involved in your blog and web design, you'll find yourself wanting to use images to attract the attention of others. As they say – a picture is worth a thousand words.

The web is flooded with images to choose from. A note of caution though – many images are copyright. That means you may not use every image you see. However, even if you aren’t going to use the images, you may wish to simply learn about something from seeing it without having to save it and re-use it.

Let's take an example of an image we might wish to see. In the old days, if the average person wanted to learn more about the workings of the body – to see the various parts and how they work, one would have to obtain expensive medical books or encyclopedias in order to see appropriate photographs and diagrams – a costly business – especially if one simply wanted quick access to just one or two images!

Today, one can simply type a word into a search box and immediately find what one needs. Here's another example: In the old days, unless one was a deep-sea diver, one could never hope to see the plethora of fish in the oceans except through purchasing expensive magazines. Today, at the click of a button, one can see just about anything one can imagine exists!

Google provides a number of easy ways to access images. The most basic way to find images is to use the ordinary image search tool. Here's what you need to do:

1. Type in http://images.google.com/
2. In the search box do a search for something that interests you. Example: Heart
3. DONE!

You'll be presented with thousands of images on your choice of topic. Click on any of them to see the image within the web page that it appears. You'll get to learn more about the different parts of the heart and how it all works. From here, you might even get taken to a page that teaches CPR. With a basic understanding of the heart and it's influence on the body (quite important!) – you'll be well prepared to help someone who might stop breathing… All from having learned a little about the anatomy of the heart from a simple Google image search!

This method is a great way to view what you need to, and if the images are not copyright – to be able to use them in your web site or blog to attract additional attention. Don't forget, people who find your images by doing a search using the Google image search will click on them and be taken to your site – increasing traffic – which is the key to successfully getting yourself known on the Internet and beyond.

Google's latest development brings a whole new understanding to image searching. It's called Google Swirl. It's all about searching for a particular image and then finding an assortment of images even more deeply related to the topic you're searching for. If we use the heart as an example, you'll find that Google Swirl will take the same image you're looking for, and find various versions of it. You'll find one with the different parts of the heart labeled. Another will be a photograph and yet another a simple sketch. The Swirl will allow you to view at a glance the type of image you're after with variations on it – so that you can find the most suitable image of exactly what you're looking for. It continues to Swirl around and around until ultimately you find the perfect image.

You can try Google Swirl (still experimental) with the exact same search as you would have done in the image search above, and compare the results you get. You'll begin to get a feeling of which search tool provides you with the better images that you're after.

Here's how to use Google Swirl:

1. Type in http://image-swirl.googlelabs.com/
2. Do a search for something that interests you e.g. Heart
3. DONE!

Compare the selection of images you get via the ordinary image search to the way that the Swirl works, to find which suits you better.

They're both ultimately terrific tools to help you find the image you're after, and ultimately navigate your way to an article somewhere on the web that will help you learn more about what you're after. Once you know that, take the knowledge you have, and share it in an informative way for others to learn from. Drive them to your site, make new friends, new contacts, new networks, and ultimately make the best use of the web to generate further wealth. Good Luck!

Article Directories - Your Personal Magazines on the Internet

Article Directories
Your Personal Magazines on the Internet

This blog is all about getting yourself known out there. If you're wanting to make use of the Internet to generate wealth (which it really can do,) you need to get the entire world to know about you. It's no good just having family and a few friends know about you, because they already know what you can do.

Imagine the biggest marketers in the world today selling their wares to family and friends only… They may not make many sales. In fact they may not make any sales at all! You've probably heard the expression "You can't be a prophet in your own city." In other words, if you walk around your own city dressed up in the most mystical of garments rolling your eyes – even if you *are* a prophet, nobody will believe you. The reason is simple… Since everyone already knows you – and they know you're just an ordinary person, you certainly can't be a prophet! But when you do the same things in another city – you're sure to get a lot of attention with everybody recommending your terrific services.

When it comes to marketing, let the Internet be the place to let yourself get out to the entire world! You can use web pages and blogs. But there's another great place to get yourself known on – Ezines. E-Zine is the shortened form for Electronic magaZINE. In the "old days" one would buy a paper magazine (do they still have them?) – where one could find the articles that appealed to one. Today one can literally find complete magazines online without having to buy the real paper version.

Because ezines became so popular, the Internet expanded itself out to allowing for people to post articles of wisdom and the like in a form that catches people's attention as being authoritative in a particular area. E-zine expanded from the idea of complete magazines to being set up as article directories. Not full magazines, but rather places where hundreds of thousands of authoritative articles exist on just about every subject possible! What area are you an expert in? Animals? Medicine? Law? Accounting? Computers? The subjects are infinite…

Now, imagine for a moment having one Internet site devoted exclusively to the best of articles written by the most authoritative people today (you know, like you and me?) People would flock there every single day to see the latest posts that could help them understand the world better – from an authoritative point of view of course! This article that you are reading – for example – may be considered just that, as I go about sharing with you the benefits of writing educational articles for the world to read.

So here you go… You have the ability to write and you want the world to see your work. You can write on your blog and get "only so much" traffic. Many people will see your article. You can write on your own web site and also generate traffic and begin to make new connections with others – when they realize how smart you are. But imagine a site that is regularly getting hundreds of thousands of hits a day… and people are constantly searching for the topic you're the authority on? They're going to be reading your article!

Then, they'll be so excited about your wisdom that they'll want to learn more about you. They'll click on a link showing them a brief biography of the person whose article they're reading (i.e. you), and then perhaps even see their web site and blogs advertised. THEN they'll click on those sites, and see the real you – that much more closely.

It's another great way to let others know how talented you are – how much you have to share with others, what you are able to share and give to others… and of course be the opening gate for you to introduce what services or products you have to sell. This may even be your own writing.

Someone is bound to see your creativity and greatness and want to employ your services, purchase your products, or hire you to be the next CEO of the next biggest marketing company in the world.

The idea sounds great – you say. Now, how do I actually go about submitting my articles?

I'm going to recommend one terrific site to you. I believe (personally) that it is the biggest available article site on the Internet. You'll get tremendous exposure and you'll see people will find their way to your sites in no time at all, generating extra traffic (which really means extra income in the end) for you. If you don't believe me, why not take a look at my own details on it to see just how many articles I have already written, and how much exposure I've had from it.

Those wishing to learn about other sites, are welcome to be in touch with me directly, and I will be happy to make further recommendations. There are some that even often a few extra pennies for your hard work. That's right! It's a great deal. You write what you enjoy writing, and they pay you. Payment is done on a per view basis. If your article is genuinely good, then millions of people will be reading it – right?! Well then the deal is fair! If it's such a great article, and millions are reading it, you need to be compensated accordingly. And so you are. Don't expect to make millions from these sites, but rest assured, if you do contribute, you will receive payment. I myself use a number of sites and feel I have gained tremendously from all of them.

As a bonus, if you choose to join some of the paying sites, and you're able to convince others of their value, you'll be paid a small bonus amount from the site for having recommended them as well. This means that when those friends of yours write articles and others read them, both your friends and you will receive a little something extra.

Let's go now and join, write some articles, and may this lead to generating even further wealth!

1. Go to www.ezinearticles.com
2. Notice the top left block – where you'll see everything you need to get going
3. You'll also notice on the top of the screen that there are over 200 000 experts!
4. Click on "Submit Articles" – top left corner – or top right corner "Join Now"
5. Fill our your personal details
6. DONE!

You're now registered. If you go back to the site again, and click on Members Login, you'll be able to edit a number of important details (which we are not going into at the moment) and be able to submit your article (which we can discuss another time.) Keep in touch and let me know how you're progressing.

Back up... Backup...

BACK UP… BACKUP…

If you're going to be using your computer and the Internet to generate wealth, you'll find every possible tool for doing so available to you – both online and off. There is one thing you'll need to be very careful about though – your data… your information. Once you get started, whether with blogging, web sites, or any type of computer work, you'll find yourself so carried away with working, that you may forget the actual value of your data. Of course, you'll appreciate the value of your data, but somewhere along the line, you'll take it all for granted.

One of the keys that will aid you in keeping check of your data, information and even your wealth – is keeping your details secure. Today, having your information on your computer alone is simply not enough. You see, with just one virus, a Trojan horse, your hard drive crashing, or a problem with your operating system, you may turn your computer on one day to find it… empty! Imagine the thousands of pictures you've edited, the thousands of documents you're written, the thousands of everything else! And now… it's gone!

There's no turning back once this happens. Time has gone on, and nobody will be interested in your precious information. The salesman who sold you your "flawless" computer (as he told you when he sold it to you) will most likely not even acknowledge you this time around – when you go to him to complain about the real quality of the machine purchased.

As for the CEO of the software company that sold you your operating system – and the rest of the crowd… you may find them interested in your problem if you're willing to spend a little extra, but even then, they won't be guaranteeing any returns on your new "investment."

As for the CEO of the company involved in selling you your 10 000 Terabyte super fast, super stable, super perfect hard disk drive: When it comes to your complaining about the fact that it's just not working any longer – don’t expect his sympathy. You'll be lucky if he's interested in replacing your drive with a brand new one at no charge just to keep you going as a consistent client.

What about your computer technician – the one who is forever fixing your machine when things go wrong? Well, if you haven't called on him in some time – don't blame him that everything has gone. He may well have already warned you about purchasing an external backup device – ready to sell it to you – but you simply felt it a waste of money!

So it's time to face facts and get on with looking after your own work, because anything and everything can go wrong. If it does, and you're not prepared for it, it doesn't matter how expensive your computer was when you purchased it, it doesn't matter how much information you had on it… it will all be gone!

I'm going to suggest just two great backup plans for today. I consider them both golden… so though it may seem like an extra expense – and even a "waste of time" – there may come a time you'll really appreciate these points:

1. Get yourself an external hard drive. You can go to your local computer store and find a range of drives available. You'll find drives of 500GB in size (pretty acceptable by today's standards!) You'll find bigger too, and perhaps some a little smaller. I'd recommend this as a bare minimum by today's standards. Pictures take up huge amounts of space, and the drive gets filled up so quickly, you'll regret buying smaller when you find the constant need to buying more drives later on. Actually if you can, I'd suggest buying at least 1 Terabyte – 1000GB to start with! You'll get them in different physical sizes. They come in even pocket sizes that can literally fit into your pocket. This is great if you ever want to carry it around with you for any reason – or if you want to just keep the drive at someone else's home in case anything happens in your own… It's really easy to store.

HOW TO BACKUP:

Backing up your data onto this drive is really easy. All you need to do is plug the USB cable into your computer, and once it connects, transfer the files you'd like to backup, much like you would copy and paste files within your one computer drive. Select the files you want to back up. Click Ctrl-C to copy the files you want to copy. Click Ctrl-V to paste the files into your new super-duper external backup drive.

2. Your second choice of backup concerns using the Internet to do so. Today, it's become even easier than ever to do. What this means is that once your data is sitting on someone else's machine (i.e. on the Internet), should anything happen to your physical computer (it could be stolen) – or should the data corrupt, you will easily be able to simply download your backed up files onto a new machine. Your data is safe! I must admit that I very much enjoy the idea of knowing my data is safe "somewhere else" (wherever that is!) I know that if data is lost and I've got a backup somewhere else on the Internet, that I don't have to worry about heavy external drives, plugging them in – and then praying that the data will still be safe there. I'm happy to know that my data is available somewhere else safe! I'm also happy to know that should I have to change locations and need my data that isn't currently with me, I can easily download it from the Internet storage location. Today you can backup your entire drive at a minimal cost (even for free!) You can also separate different information to different locations eg. Pictures to one location, documents to another etc.

HOW TO BACKUP ONLINE

Here are a few steps to backing up your data online.

1. GOOD NEWS! As of November 11, Google are now offering all users the possibility of backing up to 16 Terabytes of information for just $4096 a year! Of course you don't need it all. So let me break that down for you… They're charging just $5 a year for 20GB of space. That is an incredible amount of data for a relatively low cost. Where can you use the Google backup? You can use it for pictures – for example. By signing up with Google Picasa, you will get your very own Album space to upload all your photographs. You can choose to keep some albums private so that only you have access to them, or make them all visible. You can upload all your photos here, and keep them as backups online this way.

2. If it's a more general backup program you're after, I recommend Mozy Backup. You get 2GB free! And for every person you recommend, they'll give you another 250MB of space absolutely free! If you need more than this, which you might wish to use later, you'll have to pay a $4.95 fee per month to keep your data safe. It's worth it if you have a lot of data and your data is important to you. But if you just have a few hundred documents that need backup – your 2GB amount will be more than enough and it will be backed up absolutely free. I recommend you try it out, by simply signing up, downloading the necessary program to get things going, and getting your data backed up. Once you've set it up, which is quite easy to do as the site will teach you, it will be kept running in the background all the time. This means that as you add new documents to your computer, they will automatically be backed up online without you having to constantly fuss whether you've made the backups yet, or still need to. It will do it all for you.

These are just two really easy ways to back up your documents and photographs.

Reminder: Here are some of the ways you can lose your information:

1. Operating System crashes
2. Hard drive crashes
3. Virus or Trojan Horse
4. Computer is stolen
5. Computer physically breaks (a laptop drops on the ground!)
6. Something you simply never thought possible!

If you've got your hundreds of Gigabytes backed up on an external drive, you'll easily be able to transfer the files to your next computer or new working computer, by simply plugging it in and copying the files across.

Of course, if you did not keep your external drive at a friend's home and the like, and it gets stolen WITH your computer, then you'll lost your backups as well! Therefore consider the importance of keeping your data backed up online as well. Then, should anything happen to your physical computer, whether stolen or inflicted with a virus, you'll be able to log in – anywhere in the world – to your online backup and download your entire hard drive again. Terrific!

PASSWORDS

ONE word of warning!!! When you do subscribe to any online backup service (or any online service) use a VERY strong password. Passwords such as "password", your name, your best friend's name, favourite colour etc., should NOT be chosen EVER! A good password incorporates letters, numbers, and extra characters eg "$%!@#" etc. Choose a password of at least 6 characters, 8 is by far better, and 10 will make things pretty much impossible for the average hacker to get through. Choosing a password takes much wisdom. If you'd like some tips, look at what the professionals - Google themselves, have to say.