TechSmith is having another free giveaway. This time they are giving away a free version of SnagIt, their screen capture software. Where Camtasia Studio creates videos of actions on your screen, SnagIt takes a picture of your screen and saves it as an image. SnagIt is the industry-leading tool for taking screenshots to use in documentation. This free version is one version behind their current version.

Download the software here: ftp://ftp.techsmith.com/pub/products/snagit/725/SnagIt.exe

Get your product license here: http://www.techsmith.com/snagit/ukdn.asp

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WordPress Plugins

Name a website content management system, I’ve used it. One of the reasons to use WordPress is because of the large amount of plugins that are available. WordPress plugins are very important to the functionality of a WordPress website. Here’s my current top-ten WordPress plugins, the ones I install, first thing on every WordPress site that I build.

Google Sitemap Generator

Google Sitemap Generator creates a google sitemap: an XML sitemap format now used by the top three search engines (Google, MSN, and Yahoo!). The Google Sitemap Generator allows me to configure it like I want it. I can choose which articles on my site receive prominent placement in the sitemap. Available from http://www.arnebrachhold.de/projects/wordpress-plugins/google-xml-sitemaps-generator/.

SEO Title Tag

The SEO Title Tag plugin allows you to have one title for human readers and one title for search engine robots. Humans prefer short, witty titles that catch their eyes and tickle their brains. Search engine robots enjoy tasty morsels of keywords. Use the SEO Title Tag to keep both of them happy. Most people use SEO Title Tag to put the post headline in the HTML title tag, instead of the blog name. Available from http://www.netconcepts.com/seo-title-tag-plugin/.

Sociable

The Sociable plugin allows site visitors to easily bookmark and share the link to a post using popular social networks like digg, reddit, etc. Available from http://push.cx/sociable/. My only reservation is that the download size is huge.

Feedburner Feedsmith

This plugin will detect all paths to your RSS feed and forward the subscription feed to feedburner for ease of tracking.

Contact Form 7

The Contact Form 7 plugin greatly simplifies the creation of multiple contact forms, without touching the code. Available from http://ideasilo.wordpress.com/2007/04/30/contact-form-7/.

Subscribe to Comments

The Subscribe to Comments allows website visitors to subscribe to e-mail notifications to new comments on a post. The visitor gets notified when something new is said. You get return visits. Win-win. Available from http://txfx.net/code/wordpress/subscribe-to-comments/.

Akismet

Install the plugin, enter your WordPress API code (acquired when you sign up at WordPress.com) and you’ve got instant comment spam protection courtesy of the WordPress blogosphere. Available from http://akismet.com/.

WordPress.com Stats

The Stats plugin gives you a simple way to see a useful summary of your website usage. Requires a WordPress API code. Available from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/stats/.

WordPress Database Backup

Have your WordPress Database automagically backed up and e-mailed to you as often as you would like. What else are you doing with all that free gmail space? Seriously folks, you need this. What would you do if you lost all your wonderful words? Available from http://www.ilfilosofo.com/blog/wp-db-backup/.

wp-cache

Improves website performance and diggability by caching your dynamically built web pages to static web pages. You can configure how often the cache gets refreshed. Available from http://mnm.uib.es/gallir/wp-cache-2/.

This blog is just getting started, but I know from my stats there are people out there reading it. Yet everyone keeps quiet and doesn’t reply to anything. So if any of you want to write a guest post on this blog–with full credit and a link back, of course–just contact me.

TechSmith is offering free licenses to Camtasia Studio version 3.0 at http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia/pcpls.asp. (I found the link on Warrior Forum–an internet marketing forum).

Camtasia Studio is a software product that lets you capture what is happening on your computer screen and save it to a movie, sometimes called a “screencast”.

This free license offer is part of a promotion to get new customers on the upgrade path to Camtasia Studio version 5 for half-price; however, version 3 is an outstanding product. You can download the product here.

Camtasia is one of my favorite software tools. I’ve been working with it since version 2 and just recently upgraded to Version 5 for the automatic zooming feature.

Here’s a few ideas on how you could use Camtasia:

1. Record step-by-step instructions for clients, upload the movie to your website, and send the link.
2. Record multiple tutorials, use Camtasia’s menu builder to create a snazzy menu, record it all to CD, and snail mail your clients a CD.
3. Record how-to videos and upload them to youtube.com and other video social networking sites. Include a splash page at the front and end promoting your blog, website, or business.
4. Embed the video on your blog.
5. Create information products for sell. Record PowerPoints and/or screencast tutorials for sell as information products.
6. Transfer screencast tutorials to DVD, have them duplicated by Disk.com, and sell them as products.
7. Create tutorial movies for use in a class like: “How to blog using WordPress,” etc. Save them in Flash format so they play in the browser.
8. Use Camtasia to do product reviews for your blog and to promote affiliate products.
9. Use Camtasia to start a VideoCast
10. Grab a free copy for your clients, so that they can share information with YOU.

“Time” is a handy Google command…

time india

10:29 AM Monday (IST) - Time in India

time United States

11:58 PM Sunday (EST) - Time in Washington D.C., United States
Chicago 10:58 PM CST
Denver 9:58 PM MST
Phoenix 9:58 PM MST
Los Angeles 8:58 PM PST
Anchorage 7:58 PM AKST
Honolulu 6:58 PM HST

time new mexico

10:01 PM Sunday (MST) - Time in New Mexico, United States of America

time honolulu

7:02 PM Sunday (HST) - Time in Honolulu, Hawaii

If you need to host an online meeting, Elluminate is offering a terrific deal at GetVroom.com.

Sign up for a free account and get unlimited video-conferencing for yourself and two others. All you need is 20MB free disk space, a sound card with speakers and microphone, and a minimum 28.8kbs or greater internet connection (you need a web cam if you want to use video).

Elluminate’s Vroom is designed for online learning environments; however, the free offer doesn’t appear to be limited to educational institutions. Features include text-based chat, two-way audio, video, an interactive white board, application sharing, and file transfers.

The website has a recorded demo, where you can test-drive the VRoom platform if you’re interested in learning more about the offer. They also have offer recorded training sessions for free.

VRoom looks like it would be great for online meetings, presentations, remote training and support. The only problem I noticed is that the audio tends to lag a bit behind the video.

What do you use for online conferencing? WebEx? iLinc? Adobe Acrobat Connect? GoToMeeting.com? Central Desktop? Share your online conferencing experiences in the comments section.

Nick La, the designer of the Glossy Blue WordPress theme that I’m currently using, has put together an article that he calls WordPress Theme Hacks. Give it a read if you are seeking out the tips and tricks used in creating a WordPress theme like this one.

In every bloggers life comes a special day - the day they first launch a new blog. Now unless you went out and purchased someone else’s blog chances are your blog launched with only one very loyal reader - you. Maybe a few days later you received a few hits when you told your sister, father, girlfriend and best friend about your new blog but that’s about as far you went when it comes to finding readers.

Here are the top 10 techniques new bloggers can use to find readers. These are tips specifically for new bloggers, those people who have next-to-no audience at the moment and want to get the ball rolling.

It helps if you work on this list from top to bottom as each technique builds on the previous step to help you create momentum. Eventually once you establish enough momentum you gain what is called “traction”, which is a large enough audience base (about 500 readers a day is good) that you no longer have to work too hard on finding new readers. Instead your current loyal readers do the work for you through word of mouth.

Here’s a good reason to take a class, even if it is a one-credit exercise class, from your local community college!

Microsoft Office 2007 Student Discount

All students actively enrolled in at least .5 credits are eligible to purchase Office Ultimate 2007 for $59.95.

Details: Microsoft Office Ultimate has a retail price of $679 and includes:
- Access™ 2007
- Accounting Express 2007*
- Excel® 2007
- Groove® 2007
- InfoPath® 2007
- OneNote® 2007
- Outlook® 2007 with Business Contact Manager*
- PowerPoint® 2007
- Publisher 2007
- Word 2007

*Accounting Express 2007 and Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2007 are separate downloads.

Offer ends April 30, 2008. Go to http://www.theultimatesteal.com/home.asp for more information on how to purchase Office Ultimate 2007 for $59.95

(They verify your educational status by requiring you to have an e-mail address ending with .edu).

Outlook addons

TaskLine

It works like this:

1. Enter your working hours.
2. Schedule daily activities, exercise, “me time”, etc. on the calendar.
3. Enter your tasks in Outlook, giving them priorities and estimates of how long they will take.
4. Taskline will “schedule” your tasks on the calendar, filling in your free time according to priority.
5. Mark a task done, and Taskline files it away and reschedules all your tasks.

TaskBlaze, freeware

This is the freeware version. He now only sells it, internet marketing style, as TaskBlaze Pro. TaskBlaze does one thing well:

1. Enter a Task and click start.
2. Start working.
3. When you’re done, click Stop and TaskBlaze fills in your Outlook calendar for the time worked.

Outlook Replacement:

!ntellect is a great Personal Information Manager (PIM) that is also an e-mail client. !ntellect is contact-centric and it’s portable software–It will run off a USB flash drive! I have been using their add-on product Legal Billing to record my time and generate invoices, but Freshbooks looks great, so I might give that a try.