Thank You Tech–for Everyone Readers

I have noticed that the old odometer has just clicked over the 500,000th visitor to my humble Tech Tips, Tricks, and Advice site.

Since I first published article #1, The first Tech Paul Post: secure your web connection, I have learned a good deal, made some very important friendships, and – hopefully – helped a few folks solve problems and better enjoy technology along the way.

To my readers I say…

Two Quick Announcements

* Regular readers will know that I frequently mention (and recommend) the Web Of Trust (WOT) web browser extension (a toolbar for IE, and a plug-in for Firefox) as a free, simple to use and understand, dangerous website alerting tool.

After installation, WOT examines URL’s (website addresses) and inserts a green, yellow, or red symbol next to them, to rate their danger level. It integrates into your search results, as well as Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, and Hotmail.

Today I received a notice from them that I had been part of a small group awarded special recognition for helping to spread word of this free security enhancer.. which has now been downloaded over 3 million times.
You’re quite welcome, folks at WOT. The Internet is a dangerous place (even the “safe and sane” sites get hacked) and I very much appreciate what you do.

Kind of a nice way to start my day..
For more on the award, click here. And to download this great plug-in, click here.

* And, regular readers will also recognize the name Bill Mullins. He is a highly regarded Internet Security blogger and the author of Tech Thoughts (The first website posted to my Blogroll). I often mention his articles.. and I highly recommend him to you.

Some while ago, I had the honor and privilege of being Mr. Mullins’ first Guest Author. I am pleased to announce that he now has devoted a newly created page on his site just for Guest Writers. This is a great opportunity for those of you who write tech-oriented articles, and would like to gain the exposure of appearing on a popular site.

Although there is currently only a few submissions, I expect this to develop into a wonderful “reading room” rather quickly.
http://billmullins.wordpress.com/guest-writers/

[note: no, I don’t know how to go about making your submission. I believe you’ll find his contact info on his About page.]

Part 3 is coming soon.. just have to figure it out and write it..

Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

The Numbers Are In

I have, as almost all Websites do, various statistic gatherers and counters, which tell me all kinds of interesting tidbits about this site’s traffic and visitors. (And I confess I look at these statistics frequently.)

I started Tech-for Everyone in June, 2007, and have been writing – 6 days a week – ever since. Today I fiddled around with my stat counter and set it to “all time” mode.. To give me the “big picture”; not only of what you, Dear Reader, seem to like and “click on”, but also to see/sense how the search engines work. The majority of my ‘pageloads’ come from search ‘referrals’.

My Top 10 articles of all time are:

1. How to boot from a CD
2. Manage Startup programs in Vista
3. “My Taskbar disappeared” and other simple tweaks”
4. Scare Tactics
5. Adding programs to your Startup Folder
6. Quick Tip: overcome “access denied” in Vista
7. Find hidden files
8. Adding Firewire to your machine
9. Hibernation vs. Sleep+Vista
10. Yellow exclamation mark question

It seems that there’s an awful lot of people Googling (yes, that’s a word now) “How do I boot from a CD?” Over 50,000 of them so far.. about a hundred a day, average. What does that suggest? Well, I’m not sure.. couple of things leap to mind.

Well, there’s an airport run shoehorned into my schedule, so I’ll wrap this musing up by inviting you to click on any of those articles that might catch your fancy. I’d also like to remind you that this site is searchable too, with its own search box (located over to the right in the widgets column).
There are over 500 answers, tips, and tweaks in my archives..

Did I mention that I look at my stats frequently? Yes? Well, the truth is sometimes I get a little carried away.. and become just a teeny bit “stat happy”. Symptoms of “stat happiness” include: crying when your numbers go down, and spending hours “tweaking” your site’s keywords and metatags.. and thinking of ways to slip “hot” Google words into your text. Like; giveaway, free, sex, hot sex, XXX, Paris Hilton, Brittany Spears, secret video, (let’s see.. hmm..) hidden camera, product key codes, crack.. (There. That should help.)

Today’s free link(s):
Fearless New Year’s prediction: Computer crime gets worse. Roger Grimes makes his cybercrime predictions for the coming year, and they’re not filled with good news. Get ready now for a new wave of cybercrime coming to a computer near you.

The new MD5/SSL exploit is NOT the end of civilization as we know it. MD5 insecure? Absolutely. SSL hacked? Sort of, but it’s not broken. CA negligence? What do you think? Tom Olzak examines the roles of each of these players in the recent problems with SSL.

Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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A Noteworthy Achievement

Folks, I can tell you you that being an Internationally Renown 6 days-a-week Tech Blogger is a challenging, difficult, and often unrewarding endeavor. Coming up with fresh topics, properly doing your research, writing and rewriting, etc. is time consuming, and it’s work.
On an ad-free site, such as this one, there is no (read $0.00) financial reward.

So why do people blog? Or, maybe a better question is, why does the number of blogs double every six months? Can you earn a living blogging?
(an absolutely wonderful in-depth article looking at these questions can be found here, http://alexiskold.wordpress.com/2007/11/15/who-is-blogging-and-why/ {yes, it’s a bit dated, but still accurate.})

The fact is: something like 90% of all blogs fail (or, “go inactive”) within just a few months. Or sooner.

One thing that that keeps me going is the support I’ve received from fellow bloggers.. and another is stats.
(https://techpaul.wordpress.com/2008/03/29/nobody-reads-me-on-saturdays/)

My Website statistics show me all kinds of interesting things about you, the “site visitor” — the most important one (to me, anyway) is how many of you are there?
If I went to all this work and trouble, wrote 400 How-To’s, and only six people read them (total)… well, even a dim bulb like me would figure out that I could spend my time more wisely.

Which brings me to today’s title:
There are some rewards to being a member of the Tech Blogger community, and one closest to my heart is the support I’ve received and friendships I have made since starting Tech–for Everyone.

And so I would like to point your attention to a man whose Tech Blog was the very first one I put on my “Blogroll”, and ask you indulge me while I acknowledge what to me is a remarkable achievement.

Bill Mullins launched his Website, titled, Bill Mullins’ Weblog – Tech Thoughts — Security and System Tools and Tips. Software Reviews, News, Views, Downloads and Links on January 1st of this year. It has not quite reached its first ‘birthday’.

Since I discovered his site, I have referred my readers to several of his articles, and generally recommended it every chance I had– but most especially when he would share his security expertise with his readers, and/or warn of a new cyber-crime threat.
I consider his site an invaluable resource, and wish every web surfer would read it (and follow his advice).

Today, when I looked at his site, I noticed that his StatCounter showed over 500,000 visits. Wow! Remember when I said 90%+ fail within weeks? Well, there’s also another factor… most blog viewers land on a handful of “popular sites”.. and bloggers like me get the crumbs.
500,000 readers in less than a year is remarkable!

So I invite you to join me in congratulating Mr. Mullins on a job well-done, and suggest to you that you click here and take a look-see at his site if you haven’t done so yet.

PS– No. Mr. Mullins did not pay me to write this (and is probable unaware that I have). Remember? $0.00?

Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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