5 Ways to Keep Visitors Coming Back

A lot of successful websites depend on returning visitors to account for a major part of their traffic. Returning visitors are easier to convert into paying customers because the more often they return to a site, the more trust they have in that site. The credibility issue just melts away. Hence, keep your visitors coming back to your site with the following methods:

1) Start a forum, chatroom or shoutbox

When you start a forum, chatroom or shoutbox, you are providing your visitors a place to voice their opinions and interact with their peers -- all of them are visitors of your site. As conversations build up, a sense of community will also follow and your visitors will come back to your site almost religiously every day.

2) Start a web log (blog)

Keep an online journal, or more commonly known as a blog, on your site and keep it updated with latest news about yourself. Human beings are curious creatures and they will keep their eyes glued to the monitor if you post fresh news frequently. You will also build up your credibility as you are proving to them that there is also a real life person behind the website.

3) Carry out polls or surveys

Polls and surveys are other forms of interaction that you should definitely consider adding to your site. They provide a quick way for visitors to voice their opinions and to get involved in your website. Be sure to publish polls or surveys that are strongly relevant to the target market of your website to keep them interested to find out about the results.

4) Hold puzzles, quizzes and games

Just imagine how many office workers procrastinate at work every day, and you will be able to gauge how many people will keep visiting your site if you provide a very interesting or addicting way of entertainment. You can also hold competitions to award the high score winner to keep people trying continuously to earn the prize.

5) Update frequently with fresh content

Update your site frequently with fresh content so that every time your visitors come back, they will have something to read on your site. This is the most widely known and most effective method of attracting returning visitors, but this is also the least carried out one because of the laziness of webmasters. No one will want to browse a site that looks the same over ten years, so keep your site updated with fresh bites!

Fighting back Spam

However prevalent is Spam? According to Scott McAdams, OMA Public Affairs and Communications Department (www.oma.org):
“Studies show unsolicited or “junk” e-mail, known as spam, accounts for roughly half of all e-mail messages received. Although once regarded as little more than a nuisance, the prevalence of spam has increased to the point where many users have begun to express a general lack of confidence in the effectiveness of e-mail contagions, and increased concern over the spread of computer viruses via unsolicited messages.”
In 2003, President Bush signed the “Can Spam” bill, in December of 2003 which is the first national standards around bulk unsolicited commercial e-mail. The bill, approved by the US Senate by a vote of 97 to 0, prohibits senders of unsolicited commercial e-mail from using false return addresses to disguise their identity (spoofing) and the use of dictionaries to generate such mailers. In addition, it prohibits the use of misleading subject lines and requires that emails include and opt-out mechanism. The legislation also prohibits senders from harvesting comes up to off Web sites. Assaults constitute a misdemeanor crime subject to up to one year in jail.
One major point that calls for to be discussed about this: spam is now coming from other countries in ever-greater numbers. These emails are harder to fight, because they come from outside our country’s laws and regulations. Because the Internet opens borders and thinks globally, these laws are fine and good, but do not stop the problem.
So what do you do about this? Her are the top 5 Rules to do to protect from spam.
Number 1: Do what you can to avoid having your email address out on the net.
There are products called “spam spiders” that search the Internet for email addresses to send email to. If you are interested, do a search on “spam spider” and you will be amazed at what you get back. Interestingly, there is a site, WebPoison.org, which is an open source project geared to fight Internet "spambots" and "spam spiders", by giving them bogus HTML web pages, which contain bogus email addresses
A couple suggestions for you: a) use form emails, which can hide addresses or also b) use addresses like sales@company.com instead of your full address to help battle the problem. c) There are also programs that encode your email, like jsGuard, which encodes your email address on web pages so that while spam spiders find it difficult or impossible to read your email address.
Number 2: Get spam blocking software. There are many broadcasts out there for this. (go to www.cloudmark.com or www.mailwasher.net for example). You may also buy a professional version. Whatever you do, get the software. It will save you time. The software is not foolproof, but they really do help. You usually have to do some manual set up to block certain types of email.
Number 3: Use the multiple email address approach.
There are a lot of free email addresses to be had. If you must subscribe to newsletters, then have a “back-up” email address. It would be like giving your sell phone number to your best friends and the business number to everyone else.
Number 4: Attachments from people you don’t know are BAD, BAD, BAD.
A common problem with spam is that they have attachments and attachments can have viruses. Corporations often have filters that don’t let such things pass to you. Personal email is far more “open country” for spamers. General rule of thumb: if you do not know who is sending you something, DO NOT OPEN THE ATTACHMENT. Secondly, look for services that offer filtering. Firewall vendors offer this type of service as well.
Number 5: Email services now have “bulk-mail” baskets. If what you use currently does not support this, think about moving to a new vender. The concept is simple. If you know someone, they can send you emails. If you don’t know them, put them in the bulk email pile and then “choose” to allow them into your circle. Spam Blocking software has this concept as well, but having extra layers seems critical these days, so it is worth looking into.

Migrate to a New PC

Windows 7 comes with a pretty good migration tool--certainly better than the XP or Vista versions--but it's not perfect. I won't give you step-by-step instructions (it's very intuitive and you don't need them), but I'll help you through the major decisions and pitfalls.

But first, you must make your hidden files and folders visible on the old PC (I'll tell you why in a little while). Open Windows Explorer and, if you're using XP, select Tools, then Folder Options. If you're using Vista, select Organize, then Folder and search options. In either OS, click the View tab, select Show hidden files and folders (or Show hidden files, folders, and drives), and click OK.

Now you're ready to get started.

On the new PC, select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and Windows Easy Transfer. Or you can simply select Start, type easy transfer, then press ENTER to launch the program.

The program will ask how you want to transfer items, and offer three options. Here's what you need to know about them:

Network: This is by far the easiest option, provided you've got both computers on a network and that they're able to access each other. If not, forget it.

Easy Transfer cable: Several companies make USB cables specifically for Windows Easy Transfer. I tried StarTech.com's USB 2.0 Data File Transfer Cable for Windows, and despite packaging that referred only to the Vista version, it worked just fine with Window 7. I assume other companies' cables will, too. The main problem: You have to buy one. I've seen them on sale for about $10.

External hard drive or flash drive: This sneakernet solution is the slowest option, because you have to copy everything twice. But if you don't have a network, don't want to buy a cable, and have an external hard drive handy with plenty of free space (forget the flash drive; it won't be big enough), it's still pretty simple.

When you get passed this decision, the version of Easy Transfer running on your new PC will help you get another instance of it up on the old one. Then it will scan the old PC and decide what needs transferring.

And that's where the program doesn't quite work as it should. It selects all the obvious files and folders (documents, music, and so on) for copying, but it misses almost everything in the appdata folders. Here's what to do:

After scanning your old PC for files to transfer, the program will ask you to "Choose what to transfer." For each user listed, click Customize. Everything in the resulting pop-up menu will be checked, but not everything that should be checked is in that pop-up. So click Advanced.

You'll need to check a folder or two in the resulting dialog box. If your old PC is running XP, check the two Application Data folders; the second one is inside the Local Settings folder. If you're graduating from Vista, you only need to check one: AppData. (This, by the way, is why you need to make your hidden files and folders visible. If you didn't, these folders wouldn't be listed for you to check.)

Click Save and continue with the wizard. When the transfer is done, the program will give you a list of the files transferred, and another of the programs installed on the old machine but not on the new one. You'll want to install at least some of these programs. You can return to these lists by launching the program Windows Easy Transfer Reports.

Sony Vaio L117FX/B: 24-inch Multitouch PC Doubles as an HDTV

Like the Vaio LV180J all-in-one that it replaces, the new Vaio L117FX/B has great performance, a Blu-ray drive, an HDTV tuner, a media center remote control, and a gorgeous 24-inch display. But this time around, Sony has included a multitouch screen, Windows 7, and a design that's sleek and modern.

The Vaio L117FX/B starts at $1300; we tested a high-end, $2000 (as of December 8, 2009) configuration. At that price, you could score a standard tower desktop that has greater performance and upgradability, but such is the nature of all-in-one PCs.

This Vaio ratchets up the Intel processor to one step past that of the 2.33GHz quad-core chip found in the Gateway One ZX6810-01--a $1400 23-incher that also has a multitouch screen and a TV tuner (but no Blu-ray). However, despite its combination of a 2.66GHz Core 2 Quad Q8400S processor, 6GB of DDR2-800 memory, and a 1TB hard drive, this Sony AIO in some ways doesn't surpass the Gateway in performance.

Both systems earned a WorldBench 6 score of 105, the best general performance by an all-in-one without an Apple logo. For comparison--as tested using 64-bit Windows 7 and Boot Camp--the $2200 Apple iMac (27-inch/Core i7) scored 128 in WorldBench 6, while the $2000 iMac (27-inch/Core i5) notched 123.

The Vaio also delivers strong gaming performance for an all-in-one, but falls behind the Gateway and the iMacs. Still, its 69 and 41 frames per second in our Unreal Tournament 3 tests (at 1024-by-768 and 1680-by-1050 resolution, respectively; high quality) make it better suited for gaming than most all-in-one-desktops.

The Vaio's picture quality is as lush in its saturation as it is strong in its contrasts within a scene. That's partly thanks to the screen's glossy finish, which does much to amplify the perceived richness of the images--almost too much. It's very easy to catch a reflection of yourself in this display, let alone any nearby light source. Meanwhile, the built-in speakers definitely sound better than your average laptop. It won't shock and awe you, but it's a sweeter sound than what most competing all-in-one desktops can offer.

External port connections are extensive. The side of the screen has two USB and a FireWire 400 port, plus separate slots for a Memory Stick and a standard SD card. Three more USB ports are on the back, along with one optical audio output, a gigabit ethernet port, an RF connector, an HDMI input, and a composite video input. Sony clearly wants this system to become an essential part of your living room setup, which is possible to do in a wireless fashion thanks to the Vaio's integrated wireless-N connectivity. An included Blu-ray reader/writer rounds out the system's high-definition multimedia capabilities. Except for a faster connection standard like eSATA, it's difficult to think of other pertinent connections that the Vaio could offer. On the other hand, you may wish for more upgradability: You could upgrade the hard disk in the previous Vaio all-in-one, but this time around you're limited to notebook-style RAM upgrades.

The bundled keyboard and mouse are mostly generic, but are styled to match the Vaio's dark color and straight edges. They're both wireless, and the keyboard has extra buttons to access PC functions such as volume controls, sleep mode, and zooming. The keyboard can also tuck away in the gap provided beneath the display.

Sony's Vaio VPCL117FX/B matches the cheaper Gateway One ZX6810-01 in general performance, and both have a TV tuner. The Vaio is larger (a 24- versus a 23-inch multitouch screen) and includes a Blu-ray reader/writer. But the Gateway comes out ahead in gaming performance, and it costs $600 less. If money is not an issue, however, then by all means feel free to splurge.

--David Murphy

Dell's Vostro V13 Is A Lighter, Thinner Workhorse

Dell's Vostro line has traditionally been geared towards small businesses, doling out drab, low-powered notebooks and desktops for organizations that need PCs on a tight budget. But the V13, the latest notebook in the Vostro lineup, hopes to shake things up a bit. Weighing in at 3.5 pounds and a svelte 0.65 inches thick, this brushed-metal bijou promises to turn heads, without emptying your corporate warchest. We recently had a chance to sneak a peek at one, and came away fairly impressed.

The basic model runs for $449, and comes equipped with a 1.2GHz Celeron ULV 743 processor, 2GB of DDR3 SDRAM, a 250GB, 5400 RPM hard drive, and Ubuntu Linux. Connectivity options include 802.11 b/g WiFi, Gigabit ethernet, and Bluetooth 2.1 on every model. The 13.3 inch LED-backlit screen is also standard on every model. Klutzes will appreciate a Free Fall Sensor built into the motherboard, while road warriors can opt for a Mobile Broadband Module.

There aren't too many expandability options to speak of -- you'll find one USB 2.0 port, one USB 2.0 / eSata combo port, and a VGA display port. Ponying up for the $649 model will also net you Windows 7, a larger, faster hard drive, a webcam, and a 1.3GHz Core 2 Duo ULV SU7300 processor.

Now that we've got those pesky numbers out of the way, let's talk design. The V13 takes the ever popular brushed aluminum route, with zinc hinges. The chassis feels solid, despite being just about light enough to tote with one hand. There's a bit of plastic on the lip of the case to house the WiFi antenna, but nothing too egregious. While our typing-time was limited, the keyboard is full sized, and performed amicably. The trackpad also supports gestures, which could be a nice touch for users who opt for Windows 7.

Of special note is the battery: the 6-cell Lithium Ion battery is integrated directly into the case, much like unibody Mac notebooks. While it does allow Dell to shave off considerable girth, it means that should you ever need to replace the battery, you'll have to get your machine serviced. Like all machines in the Vostro line, the V13 comes with a year's worth of access to a plethora of business-friendly services, including 10GB of online backup, automated PC tuneup, and the DellConnect remote-troubleshooting service.

Shred 3: Wipe Out Files for Good

We all have sensitive information that we don't want anyone to see, like credit card numbers, bills, and correspondence. When you're done with the data you usually delete it to keep others from seeing it, but deleting a file isn't enough. Hackers who know where and how to look can retrieve your data from those deleted files.

Shred 3: Shred filesShred 3 eliminates this problem by making shredded data completely unrecoverable. When you delete a file with Windows built-in delete function, Windows simply removes the reference (pointer) to the file. Not until the locations on the disk are overwritten with other data is that file really deleted.

Shred 3 completely removes the data using the following steps:
1. Shred determines exactly which clusters on the disk contain the file
2. Shred accesses those particular clusters and overwrites them according to the US Department of Defense's standard. It overwrites the file three times. Once with zeros, again with a 0xFF pattern, and finally with randomly generated data.
3. Shred renames the file 26 times as a method to remove the name from the directory
4. To finish the job it deletes the file

Shred 3 is a complete rewrite of Shred 2. The shredding method has been rewritten and adds many enhancements. Shred 3 includes the following features:
• New shredding methodology
• Explorer context integration
• New user interface
• Easy shredding of IE, Firefox, and Opera history, cache, cookies, search & form history, and download history
• Shred successfully clears IE's index.dat files without deleting the file
• Shred IM chat logs
• Quick access to shred recent documents list and temporary files
• Shred registry history items

Shred Files

Shred's main interface consists of four vertical tabs: Shred Files, Clean Browsers, Shred IM Logs, and Shred Misc.

Shred 3: Shred files When Shred is launched you will see the Shred Files tab. This tab contains an Explorer view of your system. Find the files or folders you'd like to shred and select them by clicking the associated checkbox. Once you've selected all the items you want to shred simply hit the Shred button.

Shred 3: Error reportWhen Shred has finished processing the selected files you will see a report. It will give you a count of all the shredded files. It will also list any files that could not be shredded.

Shred 3: Warning messageIt is possible that a file isn't shredded because it is currently being locked by another program. For example, when Microsoft Word opens a file, it creates files containing changes in your temp folder. If you try to shred your temp folder, those files, which are locked by Word, won't get shredded. Not until you close Word would you be able to delete those files. Because of this possibility of a lock, Shred recommends that you close all running programs when you want to shred.

Clean Browsers

Shred 3: Clean Browsers The other three tabs in Shred make it easier to shred common data. The Clean Browsers tab allows you to shred stored data from Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Opera.

Start by selecting the browsers you'd like to shred and then select which data you'd like to remove. You can choose to shred:
• History – the list of pages you've visited
• Cache – the data stored from the pages you've visited
• Cookies – the data sent from the web server to your browser
• Search & Forms History – all the information you've inputted into sites
• Download History – the list of files that you've downloaded

As part of this process, Shred also shreds the index.dat for Internet Explorer. The index.dat is sort of like a database storing all of the URLs of Web pages you've visited and search queries you've submitted. Shred cannot actually delete this file because it is in use by IE and Windows. However, it does shred the data contained in the file and truncates the files, thus eliminating the information stored in the index.dat file.

Shred IM Logs

Shred 3: Shred IM logs Most instant messaging clients will log all of your chats. Some do it automatically and others require you to take some action in order to begin the logging process.

If you want to make sure all of your communications are thoroughly deleted, you can use Shred to eliminate the logs of the following clients (tested with these versions):
• Skype 3.2
• AIM 6.5
• Trillian 3.1
• Pidgin
• Yahoo Messenger 8.1

Shred will attempt to shred all logs from the default log locations of these clients.

Shred Misc

Shred also makes it easier to permanently delete other common bits of data. You can quickly shred:
• Recent documents list – this is the list of files you've opened and found in the "My Recent Documents" entry in the Start menu.
• Windows temporary files – the temp folder contains installation, scratch, cache, and other files that are temporarily used by programs
• File search history – this stores the files and folders and computers you've searched for using Windows built-in search functionality
• Windows Explorer history – Windows keeps a history of all files you've opened from Windows Explorer
• Start menu run box history – this lists every program or file you've launched from the Run link in the Start menu
• Open/Save dialog history – the standard Windows Open/Save dialog stores all of the files you've recently accessed when you click on the History location

Shred 3: Shred misc By selecting one or more of these items you can quickly and easily shred the data without going through your file system looking for them.

The data for "File search history," "Windows Explorer history," "Start menu run box history," and "Open/Save dialog history" are all stored in the Windows registry. To eliminate this information, Shred overwrites the values multiple times and then deletes the registry value. However, please note that the changes won't take effect until after you restart your PC.

Cleaning Removable Media Free Space
Shred can also shred the free space on removable media like USB flash drives. Simply plug in your flash drive and it will appear in the box on the Shred Misc tab. Select the drive and hit Shred. All of the free clusters on the drive will be shredded. This can really be handy if you previously had sensitive data on the drive but didn't shred it with Shred. All those deleted files that are now free space can be permanently deleted.

Settings

Shred 3: Settings Shred has four different options in the Settings dialog. You can choose to:
• Enable Windows Explorer context menu – this adds Shred to the right-click menu of any file or folder in Windows Explorer
• Show splash screen – this allows you to enable or disable the splash screen when Shred launches
• Do not display confirmation before shredding – this allows you to turn off the dialog that alerts you to close applications before shredding
• Use portable mode – checking this allows you to use Shred from portable media like a USB flash drive (this mode requires a Shred 3 restart).

In addition you can also reset all the settings to the default values and check for program updates.

Known Issues

Clearing Removable Media Free Space
Shred doesn't remove deleted filenames in the directory structures during clearing of free space. If you use file undelete software you can see the deleted filenames and restore files but the files will be damaged.

Files less than 4 KB
Shred cannot delete files that are less than 4 KB if the drive is formatted with NTFS. NTFS stores small files in the MFT (Master File Table). Shred cannot go into the MFT and shred these files.

RenaMusic: Rename Music Files Hassle-Free

I often get MP3s or WMA files that don't use the same naming convention that I use in my own collection. Renaming them manually is out of the question when I've got more than one album's worth of songs. RenaMusic makes it easy to rename files.

RenaMusic - main windowYou simply create a file pattern using the tags of the MP3 or WMA files, select the files to rename, add them to your queue, and hit rename.

For example, I keep all of my songs in directories based on artist and album. My file pattern looks like this \\

With RenaMusic, you can use any of the tags embedded in MP3 and WMA files, such as artist, album, title, and even bit rate, to create a new filename for the song.

In addition, RenaMusic supports the following string manipulations to give you even greater control of your filenames:
• Replace ___ with ___ Allows you to replace a character with another character. For example, you might want to replace a space with an underscore.
• All lowercase Converts the tags to lowercase.
• All uppercase Converts the tags to uppercase.
• First letter uppercase Makes the first letter of each tag uppercase.
• Remove initial "The" from Artist and append to the end This takes the "The" from a band's name and appends the ", The" to the end. For example, "The Police" would become "Police, The."

The program also has two additional tags:
• First letter of artist Takes the first letter of the artist and makes it a tag. For example, if the artist is U2, this tag will have the value U. This is handy if you store your collection in alphabetical folders.

• Original filename Lets you use the filename that originally was associated with the file.

I often get MP3s or WMA files that don't use the same naming convention that I use in my own collection. Renaming them manually is out of the question when I've got more than one album's worth of songs. RenaMusic makes it easy to rename files.

RenaMusic - main windowYou simply create a file pattern using the tags of the MP3 or WMA files, select the files to rename, add them to your queue, and hit rename.

For example, I keep all of my songs in directories based on artist and album. My file pattern looks like this \\

With RenaMusic, you can use any of the tags embedded in MP3 and WMA files, such as artist, album, title, and even bit rate, to create a new filename for the song.

In addition, RenaMusic supports the following string manipulations to give you even greater control of your filenames:
• Replace ___ with ___ Allows you to replace a character with another character. For example, you might want to replace a space with an underscore.
• All lowercase Converts the tags to lowercase.
• All uppercase Converts the tags to uppercase.
• First letter uppercase Makes the first letter of each tag uppercase.
• Remove initial "The" from Artist and append to the end This takes the "The" from a band's name and appends the ", The" to the end. For example, "The Police" would become "Police, The."

The program also has two additional tags:
• First letter of artist Takes the first letter of the artist and makes it a tag. For example, if the artist is U2, this tag will have the value U. This is handy if you store your collection in alphabetical folders.
• Original filename Lets you use the filename that originally was associated with the file.

Using RenaMusic

RenaMusic - tags Once you've got the program installed and running, the first thing you'll do is create a file pattern. The file pattern determines how your files will be renamed based on the tags embedded in the music files. Select the tags that you'd like to have appear in the filename from the drop-down button called "Insert tag." When you select a tag, it will be copied to the pattern input box.

In addition to the tags listed, you can also enter your own text into the pattern. If you'd like hyphens between tags, you could type "-" in the file pattern. For example, if you have a song embedded with an artist tag of "U2" and a title of "Sunday Bloody Sunday," the file pattern -

You can also type a backslash to create a directory of the tag preceding the "\." For example, if you had the pattern \\

Or perhaps you'd like to move the file to a different root directory so that "C:\Music\Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.mp3" would end up in "D:\My Other Music." Simply change the file pattern to D:\My Other Music\\\

In addition to the music tags, there are string manipulations and additional tags, described on the first page, that enable you to have even more control over the resulting filenames.

Once you've created your file pattern, you select the files you'd like to rename. You can select a folder and its subfolders or specific files by clicking on the checkbox next to the folder or filename. Once you've made your selections, hit the Add button to move those files to the queue. If you'd prefer, you can drag and drop files from Windows Explorer to the queue.

The Queue

The Queue is the list of all the files that you are going to rename. In addition to the filename, you can see all of the tags associated with the files.

RenaMusic - queueYou can view the queue as a simple list, or you can view the list grouped by tags. For example, perhaps you have 200 files in your list, and you'd like to see them displayed by artist. Simply drag the Artist column header to the top of the queue and it will display the list grouped by artist. Now suppose you want to define the view further so you can see the albums from the artists. Drag the Album column header to the top and it will now show you the artists with their respective albums.

The Queue provides a nice way to confirm the selection of files. You can also edit the embedded tags of a file by clicking the tag and editing it directly in the queue.

Preview & Rename

RenaMusic - preview window Before renaming the files in your queue, I strongly recommend previewing what effect the file pattern will have on your files. You can't undo a rename, so previewing really helps ensure that your file pattern is designed the way you intended it to be. Hit the Preview button and a new window will appear showing you the original path and filename and the new one.

Once you're satisfied with the preview, simply hit Rename. RenaMusic will process all of the files in the queue and pop up a dialog to notify you when it has finished.

That's it. RenaMusic takes a tedious, time-consuming project and makes it easy and quick to complete.