Quick Online Tips

13 Simple Tactics to Prevent, Detect Content Plagiarism

QuickOnlineTips — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:56:12 +0000

Guest post by Ramanujam
How can you prevent and detect Content Plagiarism? Plagiarism is a serious issue in the blog world and it is a prime duty for all bloggers to prevent their content from getting copied and also take the corrective action when needed. Every blogger gets annoyed when some one copies their content and ranks higher than them in the search engines.

While it is highly unlikely to stop blog scrappers and splogs from emerging there are some simple measures that a blogger can do to tackle this effectively. As we always know prevention is better than cure and hence the first step is to take preventive steps which will make it hard for the scrappers to copy your content.

Prevent Plagiarism

1. Copyright Banners
Let everyone know that the content on your blog is copyright protected. The best way to show it is by displaying a copyright banner at a highly visible location in your blog. Adding a copyright symbol in the blog footer is also a good practice.

2. License your content
Some bloggers will not mind if their content is used partially by third parties provided they give proper credit. Creative Commons is the most common and established method to license your content. The license should clearly state the type and this will let people know how accommodating or restrictive you are with respect to your blog content. Visit the Creative Commons licenses page and choose the right one and display it in your blog home page.

3. Protect your RSS feed
A good percentage of the blog scrappers use RSS feeds to automatically copy the content and publish it elsewhere with the help of robots. One good way to let the world know that the content came from your blog is to add a copyright message to your RSS/ATOM feed. This can be automatically done with the help of the simple feed copyright wordpress plugin. The good thing about this plugin is that it will link back to your blog.

4. Provide Partial Feeds
One of the best methods to prevent feed scrapping is by providing a partial feed and making the reader to visit your blog to read the rest of the content. While this move will annoy a good number of your subscribers and even some of them might unsubscribe but it is a matter of choice.

5. Watermark your content
It is very common to find your images being stolen and a good way to prevent this is by watermarking them. This also applies to all other content like code snippets, videos etc which you publish in your blog. Picmarkr is a free online service which will allow you to add custom watermarks.

6. Prevent Image Hotlinking
Hotlinking is the act of directly linking to an image in your blog. This is not only a copyright infringement but it will also use up your bandwidth. This can be avoided by creating a .htacess file which will display an alternative image when someone links directly to non-html objects on your site. Here is a nice step-by-step guide to prevent image hotlinking with .htaccess.

7. Use the CopyRight Pro Plugin
If you are very particular about people copying content from your blog directly, the best way is to prevent selecting and right clicking. With the help of the WP- CopyRight Pro plugin you can disable text selection and right clicking on your wordpress blog.

Detect Plagiarism

Even after taking these preventive measures, scrappers will manage to copy your content in one way or the other. It is better to stay alert and detect on a regular basis to see if some one is copying your content.

8. Google Search/Alerts
The best and easy way is to use Google Search and find replicas of your content. To automate this process you can set Google alerts for some unique terms related to your blog. A major part of this task can be automated with the help of the digital finger print wordpress plugin which will set unique finger prints at the end of each post and hence makes it easy for detection.

9. Detection Services
There are some services like CopyScape which will show copied destinations that don’t come up in Google search. Unfortunately the free version of CopyScape has very limited features. An alternative option is Tynt which is a complete copy detection and attribution service. Tynt will also aid in increasing the visibility for your content and increases your traffic and search rankings with the automatic attribution link.

Plagiarism Action

Once you find that your content has been copied the next step is to take steps to remove the copied content from the web or claim copyright infringement and make money out of it.

10. Contact the blogger/webmaster
If you see that someone is using your content without your permission or without providing credit, there is a good chance that they might have used it without knowing the implications. It is better to send a courtesy mail asking them to provide a link back to the source or remove the content.

Look for the contact form or a contact email where you send the email.
Type the domain name in a who is lookup tool and it will show the name of the registrar and the contact information. Sometimes this information might be protected but you will still be able to find a contact email address.
Alternatively you can also contact the hosting company which hosts the site and file a report with them.

11. Send a Cease & Desist Message
Wikipedia says that “Cease and Desist (also called C & D) is an order or request to halt an activity, or else face legal action”

If the blogger or the webmaster fails to respond to the previous request the next step is to send a C & D. You can use this cease and desist template and draft your own copy with ease.

12. Ask for a compensation
Plagiarism and copyright infringement are illegal and if you are the creator of the original content you have all rights to ask for a monetary compensation. FairShare is a service which will help you to do this. You can also hire copyright infringement agents like CopyByte who will take all the monitoring on your behalf and also take the necessary legal action.

13. File a DMCA
The biggest trouble which a blog can get is to get removed from the index of the search engines. If the blogger fails to respond even after sending a formal request and a cease & desist message, you can go ahead and file a DMCA with Google and other search engines. Most of the search engines have an online form where you can formally submit a DMCA complaint by furnishing the necessary information to prove that your content has been copied.

If you are serious about your blog then it is necessary to take these preventive measures and do the right action when your content gets copied.

This guest article was written by Ramanujam, a grad student in the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech. Ramanujam is the editor of SocialCouch.com where he writes about social media and web 2.0. You can also write a guest article and share your tips and tricks.

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10 Tips to Make Your Computer Run Smoothly

QuickOnlineTips — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:43:23 +0000

Guest article by Bob
How to to make your PC run smoothly? Personal computers have become an inherent part of our lives and are very helpful in keeping the personal as well as business data safe and secure. To ensure that a PC continues to work fine, it is necessary to perform various maintenance activities.

There are numerous tools available in the market like computer maintenance software and tools to help you to keep your computer and data safe. This article discusses some useful tips that will help you keep your computer running smoothly.

PC maintenance tips

Always protect your PC by installing some kind of antivirus and regularly keep the antivirus updated. There are numerous antivirus software available on the internet. Make sure you choose a known anti-virus after consulting a computer expert. A weak anti-virus program will do more harm than good to your computer. A high-quality anti-virus program on the other hand will protect your computer from dangerous invasive software that can wash out your important data. Here are top three free antivirus: Avast Home Edition Free Antivirus, Avira Personal Free Antivirus and AVG Antivirus Free Edition. You can choose the one you like best.
Keep the firewall protection on as it will protect your PC from the unwanted interferers. If the firewall is not turned on and you are accessing the internet, then some hackers can see and access all the files on your computer and can infect your PC with viruses that can slow down your PC and can sometimes even crash it. Three free firewall products I recommend are: PC Tools Firewall Plus (totally free for Windows without limitations or time-limit), COMODO Internet Security and ZoneAlarm Free Firewall.
Temp files, downloaded Internet files, and old, unused files can occupy space in your PC. Do regular disk cleanup using tools available or you can also do so manually. Regularly delete files from the Recycle Bin to remove all the unneeded files from the computer. Remove all the cookies from the PC as they are unneeded and will occupy computer’s memory and slows down its performance.
You should also install a Registry Cleaner tool from the internet. It will increase the efficiency of the PC as well as make the hardware and software run smoothly. Run this regularly weekly for best results. There are a few popular free Registry Cleaners you can get online: Registry Mechanic, Registry Easy and Registry Fix. Also there are a few commercial Registry Cleaner tools I recommend: Registryrid, WiseCleaner and Registry Medic.
Keep checking for spyware and adware infection by installing spyware detectors. A high-quality Anti Virus program also helps you detect these. Spyware/Malware/Adware are very infectious and make the PC run very slow and sometimes even damage your system and invade your personal data. There are three popular free antispyware: Ad-Aware Free, Spybot Search & Destroy and Windows Defender. You can read the reviews before you download.
All the software installed in your computer must be regularly updated so that they can work efficiently. Nowadays most software have auto update facility and they prompt for updating them. As soon as the internet is turned on, they will automatically search for the updates and if new updates are available they will get it.
Sometimes it may happen that your computer is not infected but still it is running slow. The reason for this is the installed programs require more memory for smooth running than that is available in your PC. So the solution for this is to add more RAM.
Backups help to preserve the data and important files stored within the computer. Backup creation is an easy process; you just need to copy your important data in another hard drive or pen drive/USB Sticks etc. depending on the amount of data. USB drives and sticks are convenient and portable.
Make sure that you clean your PC to ensure that dust does not harm its components. CPU fan must be cleaned regularly to avoid dust and small debris which can harm your PC in many ways. CPU fan plays an important role in making the computer run faster. The computer monitor also must be cleaned. You can do so using the household glass cleaner and a soft cloth.
When your PC is not in use, ensure that you turn it off. Also, don’t turn off the PC directly from the power switch till the Windows shuts down completely.

By following the PC maintenance tips discussed here, you will surely be able to make your PC run smoothly and efficiently.

Guest author Bob is a freelance writer and software developer at Yepbd.com. You can also write a guest article and share your favorite tools and tips.

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3 Funny Computer Pranks

QuickOnlineTips — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:24:42 +0000

Guest article by Ivan.
Want to play pranks on your or your friends computer? In this post I will show you 3 funniest computer pranks, by my opinion. So let’s begin …

1) Warning Message

Here is one of coolest joke programs called Message Manager Lite. This program allow you to setup a message dialog for display on another user’s computer and it is great for making someone think an error has occurred on their computer. How you can use it ? For example, when you have access to friends computer, download Message Manager Lite and install it, write warning message and set the time for displaying. It looks like this :

At 23:36:11 will be shown

2) The Blue Screen of Death

This is probably the last thing we want to see on our screen. If you want to watch your friend freak out, download BlueScreen screensaver. After you’ve downloaded the screensaver, take the file SysInternalsBluescreen.scr and copy it to C:\Windows … Now just apply the changes by right clicking on the Desktop/Screensaver > you’ll find the Bluescreensaver in the list

Save image from this link , apply the picture as the background.

There are a few things we still have to do and those are to remove the icons and the taskbar from the desktop. To remove the icons right-click on the desktop and in the “Arrange Icons By” uncheck “Show Desktop Icons” option.

To remove the taskbar, right-click it, unlock it and drag the border of the taskbar to the bottom of the screen.

3) Switch keys on keyboard

In this prank we will use SharpKeys. It is simple and small software built as a registry hack, which can easily change your keyboard keys. Just install SharpKeys and change numbers or letters on your friends PC and have a fun.

Download SharpKeys. Open SharpKey and click Add. After this will open window, with two sides, from key to key. There are list of keys that you can change, but you can type your own key, click type key.

Open SharpKey and click Add. After this will open window, with two side, from key to key. There are list of keys that you can change, but you can type your own key – click type key.

Restart your computer and change will take effect.

This guest article was written by Ivan Blazevic, who is owner of blog called Computer Hacking. You can also write a guest article and share you cool tricks.

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Second Best Job in the World: International Shopping Consultant

QuickOnlineTips — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:07:02 +0000

Have you heard about the Second Best Job in the World? Become an International Shopping Consultant – Fly around the world, stay in prestigious hotels, travelling business class and recording your adventure. Sound interesting?

LetsBuyIt.com, the online price comparison site, is hiring an International Shopping Consultant. The job benefits say you get €5,000 euro monthly gross salary, €10,000 euro shopping budget, Round-the-world travel in Business Class and presigious hotel stays with Accorhotels.com. If you missed the best job in the world, this is your chance to grab the second best job in the world.

What is the job profile? Complete shopping assignments in famous cities like Berlin, London, Milan, Paris, New York, Hong Kong and Tokyo. Find and visit the best shopping districts, Find products you can’t find anywhere else, Find products cheaper than other countries and present the latest trends. Loaded with a digital camera and camcorder to record your shopping experience, you have to blog and couple it with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr to share your insights!

Job applicant requirements – Age 18 years or older, must speak English, French, or German and be a passionate shopping expert., good communicator, and be comfortable speaking in front of a camera and good writer. Grab the 1 month job contract that will run between 1 January and 31 December 2010. Apply now.

Here are some popular video applications

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The War Between Mediafire and Rapidshare

QuickOnlineTips — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:11:58 +0000

Guest post by Akif
Have you ever heard of Mediafire or Rapidshare? You may have already used them and downloaded many GBs of stuff. These websites offer something called “one-click file storage”. One-click file hosting is an internet based service that allows users to easily upload whatever they want, except copyrighted materials, from their hard drives or from another similar file hosting provider (called remote upload). This is usually free or very cheap.

These sites have many users utilising their services every day. So I thought it would be a great idea to explain these websites further for people who are curious to learn more. In this article I will explain some of the features of Mediafire and Rapidshare and compare them.

There are a few popular one-click file storage services, the market leader right now is Rapidshare. Rapidshare.com is a German one-click storage website operating from Sweden and financed by paid Premium members. They still offer a free service to non-premium users with some restrictions. A non-premium user cannot upload more than 100Mb of files. The user is then supplied with a URL where the file can be downloaded which allows anyone to download the uploader’s file.

Another popular one-click web hosting site Mediafire started up in 2006 and is located in Texas, USA. The domain Mediafire.com has received plenty of internet user’s attention in a short time because of its rather few limitations for non-premium users compared to similar service providers.

Mediafire vs. Rapidshare

Comparison of Traffic:

According to the Compete.com study, Mediafire gets 1 visitor for each 2 Rapidshare visitors. The figures are misleading though. Lets see how many links there are on the internet for each site.

Link Counts:

All the Mediafire links on the internet: 17.900.000
All the Rapidshare links on the internet: 140.000.000

According to Google search results Rapidshare has over 140 million incoming links on the internet although Mediafire only has approximately 18 million links. So why – according to Compete.com results – does Mediafire seem much more popular than the Google results suggest? As I mentioned before, Mediafire’s rather few limitations attracted many more downloaders than it would if it has the same restrictions as Rapidshare. Also, Rapidshare encourages their users to share more Rapid links with their point system.

Are you wondering why I searched “Mediafire.com/?”? Because all the download links from Mediafire.com are in the same format which starts with “Mediafire.com/?”. The same is also currently true for Rapidshare links, which start “rapidshare.com/files”. Of course, a forum/blog poster may link to the file with another name, or the same links may have been shared more than once. Also note that Google results are not constant, you might be reading this post a while after I wrote it. Ignore this for now thought because we are just making a comparison.

What is Rapidshare Point System?

Rapidshare started a service called Collector’s Zone. This Zone allows users to gain free membership and some gifts. The more your links are downloaded the more points you will gain. Users are able to gain 1 point for each successful download as long as the file is larger than 1MB and the downloader generated less then 5 points in the last hour. This system though has also caused some unusual uploading habits; Users started to make 100MB files to 120MB just to bump up their link count (from 1 to 2) and to upload files which are already available on the Rapidshare servers. Despite this Rapidshare didn’t give up their promotion system. By contrast Mediafire has no promotion system for their users and this has prevented file uploads from Mediafire fans who always use Mediafire to download their files for free.

Conclusion:

Each service provider has their own upsides and downsides. Mediafire has less restrictions for free users like allowing download accelerators (something which is very rare among similar web hosting providers). Rapidshare use collector’s zone to increase their available link count while focusing their attention improving the experience for Premium users.

Guest article by Akif from Mediafire Search, which offers online search for Mediafire.com links. You can also write a guest article and share valuable insights with our readers.

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Data Recovery Software: A Boon for Computer-based Businesses

QuickOnlineTips — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:11:24 +0000

Guest post by Bob.
If you are looking to recover your important data lost due to some system problem, a data recovery software can be the best alternative as it will never let you lose your important business or other critical e-mails due to some hardware or software problem in the system. A data recovery software is very significant as it aids one in recovering all critical data lost due to virus problems, accidental formats, sabotage, software malfunction, and directory or file deletion.

Key features to Look for in a Data Recovery Software

The software must be able to recover RAID, deleted e-mails, camera cards, hard drives and other storage units that you are using on your system. It must facilitate most adequate text search engine of today, implementing the easiest technique of restoring complete files including unknown, lost and deleted files.
The recovery software must have the capability to scrutinize entire data stored in a system and create a kind of directory tree that contains all deleted and lost files.
It must allow saving data to almost any Windows drives including removable media or network drives.
The software must have a support to NTFS encrypted and compressed files along with dynamic volume including mirrored volume, striped volume, spanned volume, simple volume and Raid five volume. It should be able to resume the result of last recuperating quickly. You can use such recuperating software as long as the drive is not physically damaged.
A reliable data recuperation software must also support the file systems of NTFS which is used mostly by ‘hard drives’ and FAT 12/16/32 which is commonly used by Smartmedia, Compact Flash, floppy disks, hard disks and memory stick.
Irrespective of the problem like corrupted or formatted drives, deleted or lost partitions, the software must ensure fast data recuperating within no time from a number of disk problems.
The software should be able to scan and then recover the files that are lost accidentally or deleted and have not been yet overwritten with some new data or text.
If you are using simple ‘Microsoft Office’ or other office based software, the recovery software must be able to recover damaged documents and deleted files that still may be present in your personal computer.

By providing numerous fantastic controls, an advanced and functional restoration software makes the overall process of recovering the important e-mails and files quite easy. The only thing you need to be careful about is to buy data recovery software after a thorough market research. Do read recovery software reviews.

From my true experience, I would like to recommend 01Recovery which offers a free Undelete File for try, Undelete Plus which offers a “limited time” freeware run and R-Undelete which offers an R-Undelete Demo mode for you to evaluate how the software recovers lost files before you pay for the license. You can try before you buy from them.

Of course, total freeware is also available and they do work but maybe much less full-functional than the commercial software. You can always try freeware to see if it meets your needs. Here are a few free data recovery products I recommend: DiskDigger, DataRecovery, Recuva and TestDisk.

Guest author Bob is a freelance writer and has been involved in software development at Yepbd.com. You can also write a guest article and share your expertise with our readers.

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7 Tips to Build a Successful Blogging Business

QuickOnlineTips — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:09:09 +0000

Guest post by ZK
How to build a successful blogging business? Starting a blog is easy but being a successful blogger and taking the blog to a higher level needs a lot of discipline. Below are some tips that will help you build a successful blogging business.

Stick to one niche: Successful blogs are blogs that have stuck to blogging on a particular niche. It is better to stick to a niche rather than wander everywhere searching for ideas for your blog. By writing on a single topic you make yourself easy on learning. You also define a purpose on your blog by putting in a lot of effort towards a single topic.
Make it interesting: Make your blog as interesting it can be and plan for the things in it. Choose the right theme for your blog and plan it more efficiently. Develop your blog writing skill and have your own style on writing. Readers prefer unique blogs mainly based on the writing style of the author.
Believe in yourself: Belief is the most important thing which one has to have in mind not only for blogging but also for other activities too. With all the billions of bloggers and blogs around you may find it difficult to make your blog special. But always believe that you are unique and you have something unique to offer to people. This will make you stand out from the rest of the people.
Run your blog as a business: Run your blog like a business enterprise, imagine it to be a multi million dollar annual business. Define a set of goals not only for yourself but also for your blog. This will be a very important motivating factor for your blog. If you have built your blog completely for making money then work on it, have a set of goals which you are going to work on for the sake your blog as well as yourself. You will only think like a millionaire when you consider your blog a million dollar business.
Promote, Promote, Promote: Starting a blog is very easy, promoting and generating traffic is difficult . One of the sure shot ways to promote your blog is to write quality content and submit it to directories. These directories are great place for readers and it will help in improving the popularity and traffic for your blog. A lot of blogs and small online publications pull RSS feeds from these directories; by being present on these directories, chances are high that your blog will article also be featured on smaller online publications
Encourage Interaction: It is not enough to simply write good content in your blog but it is also important to promote it and encourage participation in it from not only the community which you are a part of but also from every reader. In fact it is very important to encourage interaction from readers as it is to improve the number of readers sharing their views, thereby not only increasing the quality of your blog but also increasing the number of readers for your blog.
Commitment: Commit yourself to blogging and remember that though you may start off blogging as a fun or a hobby activity, it has the potential to be a multi million dollar business. And just like any business it requires serious action, hard work and disciple. You have to stick and think about success constantly if you want your blog to be successful.

Guest author ZK writes on web marketing and affiliate marketing at WebTrafficROI, a blog that helps you succeed in your web marketing business. You can also write a guest article and share your tips with our readers.

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Firefox Browser Turns 5!

QuickOnlineTips — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:04:58 +0000

Firefox is now 5 years old and preparations are on to celebrate the Firefox 5th Birthday. Its amazing how a new browser born in 2004, has broken all records and emerged as the most popular browser across the world.

Photo by Christopher

Join the Light the World contest and post a photo or video of your project to Flickr with the tag ‘Firefox5′. The best photos and videos will be rewarded with cool Firefox swag.

You can also create a poster design that will help spread the word about and rally the Firefox community around Firefox’s 5th birthday. The winning design will be featured on Mozilla websites and merchandise, and the winning artist will be highlighted on the Creative Collective homepage and the Mozilla Blog.

It is interesting to read how the web has changed over the last five years and Firefox’s role in those changes.

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Eat Windows 7 Whopper Burger at Burger King Japan

QuickOnlineTips — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:52:28 +0000

Did you know that Microsoft Windows 7 Launch Promo tie-up with Burger King Japan has created the Windows 7 Whopper Burger. Loaded with 7 meaty layers, Burger King is selling out Windows 7 Whopper burgers quickly over the last few weeks.

Visit the Burger King Japan website and eat the huge Windows 7 Whopper… it costs ¥1450 Yen, loaded with 7 patties and is 5-inches tall!

So if you hosted a Windows 7 party and then got a Windows 7 Whopper, surely you will buy Windows 7 now.

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How to Unfollow All on Twitter?

QuickOnlineTips — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:05:42 +0000

Do you want to remove everyone you’re following on twitter? Now there is a powerful mass unfollow Twitter tool that promises to remove all people you are following in minutes.

So why would you want to unfollow all people Twitter? On Twitter, when someone follows you, you follow back to reciprocate the gesture. If you are in the Twitter followers number game, then you could end up following thousands of people, not knowing who they are. This will lead to hundreds of Direct messages, spam and this will not let you follow people you know, all the while filling your Twitter page with Tweets you do not want to read. So you just want to start anew… its better than deleting your Twitter account.

Want to make a fresh start? John Chow has launched his new tool called UnfollowAll – but remember, it is irreversible so be absolutely sure what you are doing.