Daily Cup of Tech

Note: This blog entry is sponsored by LoudLaunch.

There are days that I think I will just scream if I have to read another boring report. My kingdom for some creativity!

One of the really easy things that you can do make your documents more eye appealing is to select different fonts for various parts of the document. Now, I’m not suggesting that you go out make every word a different font. That is a really good way to get yourself killed! But make your header one font and your title page another. Make sure they are all in the same family so that there is some consistency and suddenly your document is no longer the same old ugly page everyone else is passing around.

Need some more fonts? You can download free fonts and add to your current documents.

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2007/01/30/urbanfonts-helps-get-rid-of-the-uglies/trackback/

Note: This blog entry is sponsored by LoudLaunch.

VR Hosted has a new name. It is now Net Actuate. Along with it’s new name comes a whole host of new services.

When they were still VR Hosted, they received a very good review from WebHostingStuff.com and had an uptime of 99.7%!

One of the interesting things about Net Actuate is the open source projects that they support. From their website:

Some of the Open Source projects we currently host include:

• Gentoo Linux - Millions of website visitors with tens of thousands of daily rsync updates, and critical infrastructure support
• SARE Spam Rulesets - VR powers nightly updates for tens of thousands of users in the battle against spam
• Nuvola & Icon-King.com - one of the highest rated Linux / KDE icon themes of all time has over 200,000 downloads from our Servers
• Freenode IRC - The IRC network Home to the most channels related to Open Source, we sponsor a server with over 4000 cuncurrent connections.
• Cacti - VR has supported Cacti, the best RRD Front end ever built for the past two years.
• Qmail Toaster - VR Supports Qmail Toaster, an excellent and easy way to build a fully functional, feature rich qmail based MTA. VR hosts both the site and mirrored builds for the Qmail Toaster script. To date, 528,413 downloads of Qmail Toaster related packages have been downloaded!

They also have hosting plans that can handle the smalled individual website to the largest corporate cohosted system.

LoudLaunch - Compensating bloggers for their unbiased opinions, reviews, and analysis. View the LoudLaunch campaign release this post was based on.

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2007/01/29/new-name-better-service/trackback/

Note: This blog entry is sponsored by LoudLaunch.

I know for me, blogging is a passion. I do it because I really like the information that I generate and the feedback that I get from people. I feel that I am really contributing to the blogosphere. And that is evident by the number of times Digg has taken down my sight (and the number of times my web host has “suggested” that I get dedicated hosting!).

I would love to start blogging full time but unfortunately I have bills to pay and mouths to feed. As you can see, I have a few advertisements on my site but I don’t want to be come one of those sites that is 75% ads and 25% content. I don’t think that there is a lot of benefit to that.

Enter LoudLaunch. This is a new website that works off a model similar to some other pay per post sites. But, I have noticed that there are a couple of differences.

The biggest difference is that they aren’t interested in “stealth” marketing. You will see at the bottom of this post (which is sponsored by LoudLaunch) that there is a very clear statement indicating that this is a LoudLaunch campaign. No hiding links in your posts to “trick” people into visiting websites you have no interest in.

Another difference is that they are willing to let you advertise for free! You are welcome to submit a free campaign at any time. This can help to generate traffic to your website as well. Or, if you want to spend a little bit of money to ensure that you get some traffic, you can start a paid campaign for as little as $50.

The final difference is that you can write absolutely anything you want about the campaign. While there are generally a few requirements, you are free to be as honest as you want about the campaign. If you think the product is the worst thing in the world, you are free to say it!

I have to admit that I was skeptical at first and that I am not 100% convinced yet because there seems to only be a few active paying campaigns right now that I would be willing to write about but I think it is worth a look at least.

LoudLaunch - Compensating bloggers for their unbiased opinions, reviews, and analysis. View the LoudLaunch campaign release this post was based on.

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2007/01/28/loudlaunch-spreads-the-word/trackback/

Note: This is a paid blog entry for Blogitive.com

People who own websites are always concerned about link popularity. And rightfully so. The more popular links to your website are, the more traffic you generate.

In general, Google searches have been the primary “metric” when determining how popular your links are. The higher up you rank in Google, the more popular your links are. Recently, blogs have started to push their way to the top of Google’s search results. This is primarily because their content is fresh and textually based which makes it easy to index. Thus, links from blogs have a tendency to be ranked higher than links from regular websites.

Blogitive provides website owners with the opportunity to have their website referenced in other people’s blogs. This can greatly increase the popularity of a site and increase traffic.

Note: This is a paid blog entry for Blogitive.com

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2006/12/09/increasing-website-traffic/trackback/

Each week, I am going to highlight a different magazine that you can get a free subscription to by simply filling out a form. This week’s free magazine is eWeek.

eWeek has provided me with a lot of really good information over the past number of years and you can now get the same subscription at no cost.

From eWeek’s website:

eWeek is the essential technology information source for builders of e-business. Through a combination of news, analysis and evaluation, it guides readers in making the best technology decisions for their enterprise. Focusing on e-commerce, communications and Internet-based architecture, eWeek enables readers to successfully evaluate, deploy and leverage new technology solutions for competitive advantage.

eWeek is available in print to both US and Canada subscribers and digitally throughout the world.

You can visit the eWeek free subscription website or go directly to the sign-up form.

Trackback link - http://www.dailycupoftech.com/2006/11/23/free-magazine-of-the-week-eweek/trackback/