Tech Exposures

AdEngage Ad Network is Shutting down

AdEngage (one of the better known ad networks and a Google Adsense alternative)  sent a stunning letter yesterday to all its affiliates and advertisers that as of Feb 8,2011 it will be closing the site.  Visitors to their website receive the same message that was sent by email to all existing account holders.

The letter says that final account payments will be settled at the end of March for those whose earnings balance was above $20.  I guess if you have less than that in your account balance now, you won’t see that money.

The letter gives no reason for this sudden decision.  With their Alexa score hovering around 6,100 worldwide, and 6,500 in the USA, one can only assume that this hasty decision was not due to lack of traffic within the ad network.   Anyone have any information on what happened?

Want to play Windows Media files (wmv, mms, wma, asx) on your Macintosh Safari and Chrome browser?

You’ll need to install a free plugin that will give your Mac Quicktime player the extensions it needs to play Microsoft Windows content.

Here are the steps to install the required plugin:

1. Download the free flip4mac plugin from Microsoft’s website and install per the simple instructions on that page.

2. Restart your Safari or Google Chrome browser and launch a page with Windows Media content to see if it’s working.

3. If you still see ‘plugin needed’, then you may need to manually enable the plugin in your browser.  In Google Chrome, type chrome://plugins/ in the browser window and (assuming you’ve already installed the plugin) scroll down the page to click on enable for the Flip4Mac WMV plugin.

That’s it.

The Affiliate Summit West was held last week in Las Vegas at the Wynn Resort and had nearly 5,000 attendees. This is _the_ place where affiliate internet marketers meet to learn about the latest industry trends and to meet with new and existing marketing partners. The conference included an expo and “meet market” where dozens of network and affiliate vendors exhibited and shared information about their services. Many of those attending shmoozed in the halls with impromptu networking opportunities.

The conference also showcased some of the industry’s leading talents in educational classes on a wide variety of subjects on the latest trends including: SEO in 2011, Mobile marketing, Affiliate marketing consolidation, Search Localization, Analytics, Monetization optimization, Conversion optimization, and regulatory changes in the marketplace.

I attended many of the classes and feverishly wrote down a torrent of notes that I have compiled into key learnings from the event. I’ll share here just the headlines, and therefore, here’s your one-minute review to the top five key trends at Affiliate Summit West 2011.

1. OS targeting. Vary the content based on the user’s computer platform.  Android, iPhone, iPad, Mac users have different experiences than the typical Windows user.

2. Google’s Local search. Get to know your keywords.  Search is changing, are you prepared?

3. Prepare a media kit. Make it easy for potential advertisers to offer to place ads on your website.

4. Trend Analytics. Always measure your website against your website’s trend over time. Don’t worry about “industry” percentages.

5. “What’s in it for Me?” That’s the only thing on the user’s mind as he reads your website page.  If you ignore this fact, your business will suffer.

Each of these headlines relate to much longer discussions. I highly recommend to those of you just getting started in affiliate marketing to check out the Affiliate Summit website, and to plan on attending the next event.  It was definitely worth my time and investment to attend.  You will get a crash course in just two days and meet the industry’s stars face to face.

Recently, I’ve had problems connecting to Skype lately on my Dell Studio laptop on Windows 7. My Linux box has no problem connecting on the same internet connection so I ruled out network and account problems.

I read about one hundred blog posts and Skype recommendations but nothing worked. I really need Skype as I use it for business daily meetings. After literally hours of trying everthing – uninstalling, removing headset, removing all audio programs, killing Media Player in task manager, killing itunes, etc… I finally found a solution that worked for me. So far, Skype loads like a beauty now, like it should, like it always did. I hope it works for you too.

Fixing the problem
1. First make sure Skype is closed and not running in task manager.
2. Go to Windows Start, find Skype in the programs menu.
2. Right mouse click and click on properties.
3. Click on Previous Versions tab
4. Hopefully you have an earlier version(s) listed in the File versions section. Select the most recent older version and click on the Restore button below.
That’s it! Now start Skype and hopefully, like me, you will be back in business in a jiffy.

Please let me know if this works for you. I’m assuming Skype will come out with a fix to whatever was broken in the latest version (probably due to some Windows update change).

I consider myself to be a lucky one.  I’ve traveled all over the world for two decades with my laptop pc in tow.  Fortunately for me, I’ve never had it stolen.   However, the statistics are starting to get stacked in favor of you having your laptop snatched at least at one point.

The FBI reported that over 1.5 million laptops were stolen in the USA alone last year.  That’s 2.85 laptops stolen in the USA every second of the day.  And, the numbers are on the rise.

If you are one of the unlucky ones, there are now technologies that assist you in retrieving your laptop and prevent misuse of your personal data  (Provided that you have the tracking software installed on your laptop).

The most ‘popular’ places for laptop thieves to do their work and how you can prevent the crime.

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Q. I have a Google Adsense account. Google occasionally shuts down for maintenance. During this time, usually four hours, all access reports if off. I’m left with no way of knowing how my website is performing. What do I do?

A. Google continues tallying ad clicks on your website, even if you can’t see them on your adsense account while the system is down. High volume websites sometimes make adjustments on the fly if things aren’t working well, or to respond to fast-changing.

Here’s a little known trick to see your stats even when Adsense is down…
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Here’s this month’s must have list of the best of iPhone and iPod Apps:
Unless otherwise noted, all apps mentioned here are FREE (requires iTunes for download).

Must Have Apps for April 2010
With over 200,000 active iPod and iPhone apps, there’s nearly an endless selection of tools and toys for every occasion. We’ve scoured the iPhone apps directories and tested many hundreds of tools. Here’s our top ten list of must-have iPhone apps for April 2010.

iPhone and iPad Suitable
We chose apps that are suitable and work well on both Apple iPhones and iPads. These apps will add to your iPhone experience, and are in addition to the great set of apps that Apple includes with your purchased device.

The apps listed here require you to have an iTunes account and you must download them from the Apps tool on your Apple device or from your PC or Mac’s iTunes. Most of these apps are free. The paid apps will include their cost in the description.  Use the iTunes links below for easy installation to your device.

On Sale Now: Apple iPod touch 3rd Generation Portable Media Player (32GB) with FREE Shipping! All iPod sizes on sale now.

Top Ten Must Have iPhone iPod iPad Apps April 2010
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Find the Google Search Term Keywords That Landed the Visitor on Your Website

I always wanted to know when displaying the webpage what search brought the user to this page.  You can always look at Google Analytics, or whatever statistics package you have on your server (Urchin, Webalizer, etc…), but that is after the fact.  So, I wrote a simple PHP script (all server-side) that gives you that information.

Code Example: Full script – Copy & Paste

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Here’s the link to our RSS feed on Feedburner.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/TechExposures

Free and Legal Method for Acquiring a Reliable USA IP Address For Testing and Surfing While Outside the USA.

Q. You’re located outside the USA and need to test what your website looks like to your USA visitors.  What’s the easiest way to accomplish this for free an without pesky and unstable ip cloaks and expensive ip proxy address forwarders.

A. If you have a server already located in the USA, all you need to do is to connect via SSH to your server with a port tunnel and then configure your browser to access all non local internet connections through that port.

Step by Step Guide to SSH Tunnel:

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