Using your Facebook vanity URL

If you use Facebook you'll probably be aware that they recently allowed ther users to register a 'vanity URL' (username is their name for it). Bigwigs have always been able to boast of an URL such as facebook.com/u2 , but this feature has been opened-up to (almost) everyone else.

The value, especially if you're a big user of facebook, is simply to be able to send people to your profile with an easy to remember URL. So I can now say 'check me out on Facebook at www.facebook/com/stevemccabe'.

But to fully utilise this feature, you'll need to make changes to your Facebook privacy settings. Because it's no good boasting of your new FB address if, when someone goes there, there's no infornation showing about you. So in your Facebook privacy settings, make sure you enable the Search Visability to 'Everyone'.

This way your new Facebook URL will say at least something about you, especially for non-Facebook users visiting the URL.

10 Ways to energise your blog

Blogging is not dead.. but you might have neglected it for Facebook or Twitter. This article suggest 10 good ways to re-energise your blog! Don't forget, you can also automate your blog, Facebook and Twitter accounts.

A Better Surfing Experience

Surfing in Dominica, we tend to use all the default settings our ISP provides us. The problem is, their Domain Name Servers lag hours behind the rest of the world. So for a better surfing experience, use OpenDNS.org.

You can sign up for an account on OpenDNS.com (it's free), or simply start using their DNS right away. Go into your Network Settings, and change your Domain Name Servers to:

208.67.220.220
208.67.222.222

If you have a small home/office network, you can do this on your hub/router/modem.

Using OpenDNS will pull up a search page if a domain doesn't exist (rather then a 404 page) but it's worth the switch for the faster and more up-to-date DNS resolution.

Conficker what?

There's a good article about the Conflicker 'virus' that never appeared on April 1, like many pundits said it would. Scares like that should merely amuse you, knowing that you do have an up-to-date anti-virus package and your Windows is updated too.

In terms of anti-virus protection, there are two free options worth checking out: Avira, and AVG. For a good comparision of the merits of these products, also read this.

The New Facebook - Some Trips & Tricks

Since Facebook launched the 'new look' for their Home Page this month, many users have criticised its layout. But as with any change, there are pros and cons... and ways around it.

Changing the Look of Your Facebook Page

First, let's take a look at a few ways to change your the look of your new Facebook home page.

1) The following article from InsideFacebook.com offers some tips on how to customise your facebook page. These include;

• Hiding Friends you don't want to see
• Grouping friends into Friend List
• Change your default home page filter

Read the entire article here: 3 Tips for Customizing the New Facebook Home Page


2) And for those who want to return to the old look, Steve provides a summary of how to change it.

Sometimes we forget the whole point about using Firefox is that, with extensions, we can customise the surfing experience. The new Facebook 'design' is a good example; you can be sure that if others don't like it there will be an add-on to fix it.

Facebook Purity and Facebook Fixer can both be used to fix design issues with the new Facebook. Both are Greasemonkey scripts, so you'll need to install this first. But you'll be able to:

* hide annoying friends and their quiz obsessions
* hide the annoying 'Highlights' column
* and much more.

Advantages of the New Facebook Page

One of the strengths of the new Facebook setup is that it offers more power to those who have set up a Business Page.

From here on out, whenever you post to your Business Page, a feed will appear in the 'News Feed' of all of your Fans (unless they decide to 'Hide' it).

So use this opportunity to your advantage - give your Fans some brief, relevant information about your business - current specials, upcoming events, etc. They will see your information right in their Feed, giving you great access to you customers. Keep it brief & interesting - don't give them a reason to click the 'Hide' button!

Convert PDF files to Word Docs!

This wonderful little site makes it easy to convert any PDF into a Word Document.

Best of all, it's free! Visit PDFtoWord.com

Simply upload your file and it is converted and e-mailed back to you.

Going Green for Travel Businesses

How does "green thinking" affect a consumer's decisions when making travel plans?

A report just released by PhoCusWright reveals the following:

• More than four out of ten U.S. travelers (44%) consider environmental impact to be important to them when planning travel
  
  
• A majority of U.S. travelers (56%) are skeptical of what companies tell them about their green practices
  
  
• Just under a third of travelers indicate a willingness to pay some sort of premium for green travel
  
  
• Only 8% of green travelers believe it is easy to find green travel options

(From PhoCusWright Report here.)

Bottomline

These findings have a significant impact on the strategies used to market 'green vacations' to those looking for environmentally friendly and sustainable holidays.

1. Establishing social credibility is more important than ever when trying to reach green travelers. Since many travelers are willing to pay a little more for green travel options, it is worth making the effort to convince them.
   
2. Word-of-mouth marketing techniques are critical to success here, as they help bolster a company's social credibility.
3. Make it easy for your potential visitors to get this information. Start with your current mailing list of past customers who already trust you and promote the green aspects of your business to them.

Use your website, blog and e-mail newsletters to tell your customers how green you are!