A Dawn Journal Is Going Through A Facelift

A Dawn Journal New Looks.JPG

A Dawn Journal New Looks

A. Dawn Journal is going through a complete redesign. I have been working with my designer for a few days now. We have decided on three final designs. Once I pick one from those three, my designer will start working to give A Dawn Journal a new life.

This facelift is necessary to take A Dawn Journal to the next level. Once completed, it will be more user-friendly and will let you navigate easily. And, of course, it will look more professional.

The main purpose of this facelift is YOU. I would like to give you a pleasant browsing experience. Visiting A Dawn Journal should be effortless pleasure, not a technical pain. I would like to hear from you. Once the new site is up, you can make comments right under my post. Alternately, you can send an email. I hope you will like the new design, and A Dawn Journal will be a part of your daily routine.

First Published: ADawnJournal.com July 1, 2008

Saying Goodbye To MS Word And Excel

Months ago, I used Google Docs, and I thought it was pretty neat. However, I discontinued using it because it did not offer offline feature back then. Couple of days ago I tried Google Docs again and found out that it is fully equipped to work both online and offline. I like the fact that with Google Docs you can work on your documents whenever, wherever. I have had enough of Microsoft, and it is time to say goodbye to MS Word and Excel.

Google Docs is a free, hosted service where you can create and share documents such as word process, spreadsheet etc. The feature I like most is that you are not tied up to your own computer. Also, users can share and collaborate in real time. This is very useful if a group of students or a team of Internet Entrepreneurs are working on a project and would like to share and edit as they go along.

Recently, Google added limited PDF functionality to Google Docs. It can now upload, share, “copy and paste text” and “save as PDF”. Although Edit feature is not yet available, Google is expected to implement it shortly.

I have never been a fan of Microsoft Word and Excel. In this digital age, users are looking for a simple product with an emphasis on sharing ability. MS office failed to meet customer demand and ignored to address customer’s needs. Until now, I had no other choice but using MS Office. But now that there is an alternative , I am not going back to MS, and it is time to say goodbye.

First Published on: Jun 23, 2008 ADawnJournal.com

How To Come Up With Great Domain Names

Domain Name Ideas and Tips

One thing I am constantly doing and never fall short of is my relentless pursuit for great domain ideas or domain names. Today, I will share a few things on how to come up with great domain names out of thin air.

Creativity is your number one asset – if you want to be a proud owner of some world-class, high-end domain names. Whenever I don’t need to be attentive and can free up my mind, I put my mind to work questing for domain names. Most people will let their mind wander when on the subway, standing in line, or just wandering around and wasting time; however, I see these moments as an opportunity and concentrate on finding great domain names. Here are a few tips I can share with you. These tips have worked for me and if you use them, they will work for you too.

- Always keep your eye and mind open. Pay attention to details when you are watching TV, reading signboards or store names while walking, reading a newspaper, and so on. Why? Because you may bump into some words or variations of words that can be used as domain names. For example, I came up with Dotcomdiary.com, Earthroadmap.com, and Globalboundaries.com just doing what I just mentioned.

- Keep a notebook and pen handy on your table, next to your bed, in your bag, etc. This happens to me a lot – I wake up in the middle of the night with a domain name burning in my head. Because of keeping a pen and notebook handy everywhere, I am able to write down the domain idea that woke me up in the middle of night and research it later when I get a chance. I came up with domains like beyondyourimaginations.com, greenlivingjourney.com and many others because I was able to write down right away.

- If you are waiting in line or riding the subway and can’t find anything to do, play around with some words and variations domain ideas. For example, one day the word “Roadmap” somehow struck my mind and I got infatuated with this word. Since then, I have been building one after another great domain names with this word “Roadmap.” Some of my Roadmap related domains are: Earthroadmap.com, Roadmaptosaving.com, Roadmaptosaving.com, RoadmaptoChina.com and much more.

- Use domain tools such as Domainbots.com to help you create domains with those words you are enthusiastic about. If you enter a word in Domain Bots search and hit enter, it will give you many variations with that word and also will tell you which are available. For example, I found many domains tied with “Green” and “Travel” from my search results on Domain Bot.

- Many domain names are dropping out of someone’s portfolio because the owner forgot to renew, gave up Internet Entrepreneurship, or simply can’t afford to hold them anymore. There are many sites that list those domain names that are about to expire or have recently expired. Go through these lists and who knows, you may be able to pick up your gem from these dropped-out domains. I found domains like 1timecash.com, 1tourtravel.com, and Realestateexpedition.com because someone else forgot or decided not to renew these domains.

There are many other ways to come up with great domain names. I can think of the above I mentioned right now off the top of my head. If you are into domains, you will come up with your own ways. If you can’t think of something right away, never give up and keep trying. It will all come to you slowly.
First Published: EntrepreneurJourney.com Apr 18, 2010

What to Do When Hackers Hack Your Websites

Tips to Deal with Blog or Website Ad Codes from Hacking

Recently, I had my first incidence of one of my sites being hacked by online intruder. Nothing can beat the learning that comes from experience – that’s why I have decided to share my experience with you today. Also, I will describe a few steps you all should consider to better tackle this type of situation.

About two weeks ago, I opened one of my sites in my browser and found out that the top widgets on the right column had disappeared. Also, the whole site looked disheveled - it was like someone had played around and tampered with the site’s programming codes.

My programmer was able to fix everything in time. But then, he gave me a valuable tip which I have never thought of. He mentioned that hackers usually hack sites to implement their own ad codes. So instead of the site owner, these high-tech thieves make money. If you are an Internet entrepreneur, you know that all ad codes such as Google Adsense, Infolinks, Chitika, etc. run on your site because of a few line ad scripts or html codes. The only thing makes these codes identifiable for the individual is a numeric value such as 54890245 or something like it. Now, if someone hacked your site and implemented their own codes replacing yours – it’s almost impossible to know by looking at it. We usually never check and match these numeric values assigned to each individual.

So, hacking your codes could go unnoticed for many months until one day you think: wait a minute, how come I have never made money in the past 2 months? What precautions should you take if your site gets hacked or even if it did not get hacked but you just want to be safe?
Follow these simple tips:

- Always backup your site
- If your site gets hacked, change your password ASAP
- Go through all ad codes to make sure they are indeed your codes, install fresh codes if necessary
- Always keep an eye on your revenue. If you see a sharp drop in income or no income at all, it means your site  
  has been compromised.
- It is a good idea to change your password periodically. 
- Do not use the same password for your ad accounts, email, and other programs. If hackers get thru your site,
  they will have access to everything
- Do not make your password too easy to guess
- Your programmer, editor, virtual assistant … should be someone you can trust. For example, I have been with
  my team of experts for a few years now and I trust them all, as they are very trust worthy.
- Always take precautions and be vigilant. Use your common sense and let it be your guideline.
First Published: EntrepreneurJourney.com Apr 3, 2010

 

Google Finance Canada

Google Canadian Financial Site

First Published: ADawnJournal.com Jan 08, 2010

You have got to check Google Finance Canada out. Because it’s a Canadian financial site and from Google. Google lunched Google Finance Canada in August 2007. Google Finance Engineer Dion Roy, a Canadian, stated in his blog that Canadians are the second largest users of the original Google Finance and Google Finance Canada is a localized version tailored specifically for Canadians. I like Google Finance Canada for the following:

  • Unbelievably simple to use. Looking for a stock or a company? Just start putting the name or trading symbol in the search box. Let’s say you want to know about Bombardier, and you don't know the trading symbol. Just write bom and see what happens. This autocompletion feature is really a brilliant idea. Try it now.
  • An Ad-free site (yes, it is ad-free but hard to say how long it will remain ad-free).
  • simple layouts. Easy to navigate.
  • Create a portfolio to watch your stocks. Google has made this so simple. Try it out. You can even add Price and Number of Shares to monitor how much money you are making (or loosing).
  • Watch Canadian financial news, Canadian economic data, Canadian stocks and mutual funds data – all in one page.

You will not find lots of tools(like Yahoo Finance) on Google Finance Canada because it is a very new project. I am sure Google will be improving this site rapidly and will be adding lots of features. Another positive feature Google Finance Canada has is that it does not have too many things crammed up in too little space, unlike Yahoo. Click here to visit Google Finance Canada.