Increase Ranking With Contextual Linking
Jun 30 by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in SEO
Do you have a “link page” on your Web site? Well, think about changing. A better and more effective way to have quality links on your page is by using contextual linking.
What is contextual linking, you might ask? Well, the answer is simple… it’s adding links that are embedded in your existing content-rich pages.
Forget those pages where you’ve just added a whole bunch of links to various companies. Even dividing them into industries doesn’t help (unless your Web site happens to be a directory). There’s no CONTENT on these pages to make the search engines happy. And who is going to voluntarily visit your link page? Probably nobody; conduct a survey and you shall see… ;-)
A simple text link will normally consist of a few anchor words, with a link to that other Web site. They aren’t within actual content on the page. But a context link will exist within lots of text that is relevant.
The number of links within that text should not be overwhelming to the visitor. And it’s important to know that these contextual links are particularly high quality. Search engines will rate them as such because of the content of your pages, as well as rating the quality of the content of the pages that your link links to.
You can ask others to add your link into their pages by already having their link on your page, but you will find that if you are not indexed in the major search engines, they will refuse to reciprocate. Why? Because no one is going to find that link. Ensure you are indexed. How to find out?
Type in your Web site address into Google. Does your site come up? If so, you’re indexed.
Also, be sure that the site you are asking to contain your link comes up as being indexed. Place their Web site URL into Google as well. If they aren’t indexed, forget about them for now.
Having contextual links has become a viable way to drive traffic to your site. You’ll find targeted traffic will arrive, eager to see what you have available.
Remember: Relevant text is important. You don’t want to be selling services as an auto mechanic and have links to laser printer sales companies. But if you have links to businesses that sell auto parts or cars or tires… well, you see what I mean.
Here’s an example of how it could work. Let’s say you have a Web site where you’re writing about your travel experiences. Here’s a part of your possible content and a contextual link…
The last time I traveled to Europe I booked my ticket to Germany at TicketsFor99.com.
That “ticket to Germany at TicketsFor99.com” is an in-context text link, a link within and relevant to the content.
Doing contextual linking will set you up to get more quality traffic and thus more sales. Do it!
—Marcus Hochstadt
18 CommentsPermalink Tags: link building, SEO
72 Hour Special
Jun 27 by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Specials
International Market & Keyword Research
Discover Hot Markets And Spot Killer Keywords Of Any Country And In Any Language… 100% Guaranteed!
(<- Click on the image on the left to see the large version and to rotate the cover; opens in a new browser window.)
Starting an Internet business without proper research is like opening an offline store without investigating the market potential and its “monetizability” first. While we would not do this in the offline world, why do so many people start an Internet business without doing proper research first?
I know, it’s easy to register domain names. “One minute and the click of a couple buttons!” That’s what Webhosting companies state in their advertisements. But what about the necessary research before the registration of a domain name? They don’t care…
Do you know the market potential of your product ideas? Do you know which keywords visitors enter into the Search Engines and how many? Do you know what to write about so that Search Engines deliver visitors over and over again?
In case you ever researched markets and keywords, you certainly used one of the countless keyword tools available. Did you know that some of them do not deliver reliable results, or that most focus on the US market only? Why leave money on the table?
With the Home Study Course I’m releasing today—International Market & Keyword Research—you can finally discover hot markets and spot killer keywords of any country and in any language… 100% guaranteed!
Before I get ahead of myself though, here is what others say about this Home Study Course…
Marcus,
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to view these videos. The videos were extremely helpful to me.
Over the last year I’ve had “gurus” tell me about these tools, but apparently had no idea exactly how they worked and the extent of the information that I could get from them.
Simply put, these videos have taken all the guess work out of market research and have provided a very realistic and easy to understand approach to market research with keywords.
Instantly after watching them I started applying what I had learned and have in turn learned more about my niche in one day than I have learned in the past year.
Thank you for taking the time to thoroughly explain these tools in these easy to comprehend videos!
And I meant it all! :)
—Pat King, FitnessLifeClub.com
Marcus,
I went through your videos and really like them. You provided a lot of good information that even someone with very limited knowledge would be able to follow along. The sound and video quality was great and I enjoyed going through them all at once.
I am sure with some playing around it would be neat to target and geotarget certain keywords to be shown up on a blog or website.
—Josh Whitford, JoshWhitford.com
Hi Marcus,
I enjoyed your course very much.
I liked your in-depth look at free tools that people can leverage and assess online market potential as well as select relevant keywords.
Your introduction made a case for research, and I was lead to believe that the course would be for beginners. Once I got into the body of the course, I realized that it is also valuable for professionals.
I have experience, so I found your course very valuable, because it took me to places where I hadn’t gone before.
—Larry Brauner, Online-Social-Networking.com
Until noontime on Monday, June 30 (PDT/GMT -7), you can get the DVD International Market & Keyword Research for $35. After this special, the price will go up to $100.
Here is the link to order the Home Study Course DVD…
http://kunaki.com/sales.asp?PID=PX00RIHGCZ
—Marcus Hochstadt
Good Internet Business Practice
Jun 25 by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Business, Strategies
When running an Internet business, it’s important to maintain good business practices, just like when having an offline storefront establishment. The major difference in operating online is that you have a much larger market—and therefore potentially can do many times the business that you would be doing locally. All the more reason to keep your business practices up to snuff! :-)
An example of how you can go off the rails in your business practices is this…
Say you are communicating to customers via email. You should treat email as if it was a handwritten letter. Sign it! Otherwise how does the person receiving it know who you are? Then how do they address you when they write back? “Dear Ghost”? Or “Dear you-won’t-reveal-your-name”? Or “Dear you-want-me-to-visit-your-web-site-and-search-for-your-name?”
You won’t be using letterhead with email, so the best way to handle that is to have not only your signature at the bottom, but the name of your company and your contact information, too. Or perhaps a great, catchy headline making them want to click through to your Web site.
The same goes for greetings. Don’t just start messages with “I wanted to write to you about your last purchase…” Use their name in a proper greeting, “Dear John,” and give them some respect. In your offline business, you would never write a letter to a business associate and fail to use a greeting at the head of the letter, would you?
In a store or office, when a customer comes in with a question or complaint, it gets answered right away. You can’t turn away someone standing there in front of you. Even phone calls are answered and you deal with the person on the other end.
The same goes for an Internet business. The communication methods will often be different. They will usually email you or fill out an online form. These have to be handled rapidly.
When you don’t answer communications right away, you can lose a good customer. They wonder if you are really there at all, or if you are really serious about your business.
Perhaps you went out of business. They don’t know. It’s not like calling a company and hearing a voice on the other end stating the company name and giving you the option of speaking with a live person.
Truthful and accurate descriptions of your products or services are a must, too. If someone can walk into a physical store, they can inspect the merchandise for themselves.
They can’t see the actual item online, so you must be able to substantiate whatever claim you make as to its appearance, ability to do any function, etc. To advertise a product otherwise would be misleading and can result in less sales and countless refund requests.
Offline, when a store gets unsolicited referrals from a “competitor” it is likely that competitor becomes a partner in that you also refer customers to that store. Do the same online.
Does someone recommend and link to one of your products? Recommend and link back to one of his/hers, at least to his or her Web site!
Bottom line? Run your Internet business with all the care of one offline, and you will be respected for your good Internet business practices… and likely get more business through word of mouth!
—Marcus Hochstadt
SundayTV
Jun 22 by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Better-Than-TV
Imagine doctors tell you “you will never live independently again”. See what happened to Bill Cawley…
This tells me, again, to be aware of which messages we let into our life.
—Marcus Hochstadt
Travel Ghostwriters Needed
Jun 20 by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Announcements
I’m looking for one or two more excellent travel writers for one of my Web sites (a content rich travel site).
Do you love to travel? Have you been to different places, eventually to Europe? Do you love to write? Is English your first language? Do you have a broad vocabulary? Is your writing style captivating and exiting so it grabs the visitor’s (i.e., traveler’s) interests to an extend that s/he will browse the site to read more, more, more? Would you like to get paid for ghostwriting? (The common request is for short 300-350+ words articles plus headline & short description; usually $5-$7 per 300+ words article.)
Note: All content you provide should be original and publishable by me with no fear of infringing on someone’s copyright. Articles that are borrowed, copied, or roughly compiled from other sources will not be accepted. We will be checking for plagiarism.
If the above sounds appealing to you, send your info using the contact from at MyGermanCity.com. Give a sample travel article with your submission (in the message itself), and indicate your rate.
Payments via PayPal. You will receive the topics and can work at your own pace, but it is desired you write five or more articles per week.
Thank you!
—Marcus Hochstadt
Firefox 3 Is Ready!
Jun 19 by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in HTML, CSS, Design, Pickups
I exclusively use the Firefox browser for more than three years now. It never ceases to amaze me. It’s fast, it’s reliable, it’s safe. And Firefox is predictable in terms of coding.
What I mean is when you know how to code (html, css, that sort of thing) and you do it correctly, the Firefox browser will display your code just the way you intended. Whereas when you deal with Internet Explorer’s and Safari’s idiosyncrasies, it can give you headaches as to why they behave to strangely.
Sorry, Safari enthusiasts, but how come a page displays and a video plays correctly in Firefox, IE, Mozilla, Opera and Netscape, but not so in Safari? I don’t get it…
Not only that though, Firefox is fast, too. In fact, it was faster than IE and now they made it even faster.
I downloaded Firefox 3 last night. Already after browsing a couple sites I discovered how fast it has become. Internet Explorer is now up to 20 times slower!
I know that 73% of my visitors are Firefox users. Therefore, I encourage you to download the newest version 3 from www.mozilla.com or the World Record page they’ve set up…
http://www.spreadfirefox.com/en-US/worldrecord
On that World Record page, you can see how many downloads where in which country.
What amazes (but not surprises) me is the numbers of Germany. Out of more than 8 Million downloads worldwide, there where almost (or, by now, probably more than) 1 Million downloads in Germany alone and more than 4 Million downloads in Europe, making Germany the #2 country and Europe the #1 continent in terms of downloads.
Anybody still concerned about the German and/or European Internet market? ;-)
—Marcus Hochstadt
7 CommentsPermalink Tags: ff, firefox, ie, internet explorer
The Importance Of Rapid Communication
Jun 17 by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Strategies
In any business, online or off, your communication with your customers and business associates alike is extremely important. Whether you have a Web site, a regular store front establishment or have a mail order company from your kitchen table, you have to maintain rapid communication with all concerned; clients, customers, partners, and others.
It isn’t just what you say that’s the crux of your communications, but the speed with which it is delivered. Of course, what you say is vital. You are, after all, imparting a message with what you are saying—a message that should travel over to the other person by whatever means, and be understood. But perhaps you have that down. It won’t matter what perfect message you are relaying; if it comes too late, it won’t make a big difference.
What I’m saying is that speed in delivering the communication is very important. It can actually make or break you as a business. Here’s an example…
A lady wants 10 small booklets printed. It’s a pretty simple job, with no huge design challenges. She walks into a printer’s shop and tells them what she wants and gives a couple options, wanting to get a price range. The printer takes down all the details, and then says she will email the quote by the day after tomorrow.
The lady is sort of stunned, since the job seemed pretty simple. But she thanks the shopkeeper and leaves. She drives down the street to another printing shop. She walks in and tells them what she wants and gives a couple options. The printer pokes at a calculator and gives her a quote.
Guess who gets the printing job?
Take complaints within a business for another example. A customer with a complaint, although sometimes hard to face for a businessperson, needs attention, and needs it fast. It’s the complaints that aren’t “communicated to” that escalate into legal suits and other things.
This world has become one of customers desiring instant gratification. With the speed of the Internet and the ease of phone calls, this continues to increase. The same goes for communication. People with questions of you expect rapid response. If you don’t respond at all… well, they think you don’t exist anymore and go somewhere else.
So, okay—you know that you must respond to communications fast. Good! But now, how to you prioritize these communications? Glad you asked… ;-)
You should treat any communication as a priority when it’s related to your business, but how do you break them down more thoroughly?
Prioritize communication handling this way as a suggestion:
- People appearing in person
- Telephone calls
- E-mail messages
- Letters
There’s nothing worse than being in the middle of a business transaction in person with someone and having the phone ring to interrupt. What’s worse is when you are the customer and the business owner stops, picks up the phone, and begins a whole new transaction. It would be just as simple for him to either put the person on hold, explaining that he was going to be a few minutes, or taking a number to call back.
E-mail messages can be answered within a few hours with no real problem, and letters can be replied to within 24 hours to three days and still be considered rapidly handled.
Fast communications are vital to today’s business practices. Get good at it. You’ll have more business—guaranteed!
Or as Joe Vitale famously says, “Money loves speed!”
—Marcus Hochstadt
Law Of Attraction In Action
Jun 13 by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Strategies
The term “Law of Attraction” is used a lot these days. And because I’m far from being an Law of Attraction expert, there are two sources I visit often and highly recommend, Abraham-Hicks and Gary Evans.
As far as I know, it’s based on the principal of “like attracts like.” Simply stated, if your emotions and beliefs are all positive, you will attract positive things. It precludes actually having to take action to attain these things. The idea is “they will come.”
It has been considered that you get what you feel in alignment with, and what you feel in alignment with determines what you will experience.
And yes, this can be applied to any area in your live, including the thriving Internet business you are building.
Let’s share a story with you…
A friend of mine had the Law of Attraction work for her—and she didn’t even know about it as a subject. That just goes to show that laws are laws. The law of gravity works whether we know about it as a law or not.
She had recently divorced and her children were grown and out on their own. She thought this was the perfect time to change everything in her life, move to a new city and start over. She could do all the things she had not had the chance to do before. She sat down for a couple of nights running and started making a list of the things she wanted.
She wanted a cheap place to live to start out. She wanted to get a job in which she could advance, and she even listed out certain things that she would like that she never had with her family. For instance, her family had hated chocolate (for whatever reason) and she loved it. She wanted to have Boston cream pie until she could stand it no more.
Once she arrived in the new city—with a friend putting her up until she could find a place to live—she almost immediately found the perfect place in the exact price range she pictured. (And it was commented by her friend that NOBODY found apartments that cheap in this area.) She got a job and was promoted in two weeks to an executive position. And when her birthday arrived, what did the office have for her celebration? You guessed it! Boston cream pie.
These were just a few of the things she had visualized. In fact, she had kept a little notebook where she wrote down all the things she had listed. A year later, she came upon the notebook while cleaning. Opening it to her list, she began highlighting all the things she now had that she had wanted back then. Every single one she had or had accomplished!
My friend had never heard of the Law of Attraction. Yet it worked for her. She knew what she wanted, listed it down, pictured what it would be like to have those things, and forgot about it… everything just happened from there.
If you have never seen the film entitled “The Secret,” you should see it. The way the Law of Attraction is defined presently is largely due to this film and its popularity.
Without getting into the history of the concept, suffice it to say it’s been around for a long, long time… like from the times of Babylon. :-)
The concept is simple. How you feel is shaping your future. If you have good thoughts, positive ideas and feel good, then that is how your future will be. The good things will come to you.
Following with the rule of like attracting like, you must therefore avoid negative feelings. If you are concentrating on the negative, negative things will come into your life.
For instance, if you are thinking how broke you are and how hard it is to get money, this will manifest for you. You’ll be broke and have a hard time getting money.
So how do you “practice” the Law of Attraction to change your life for the better? It’s only a few steps, and there are many details to each, but here is a summary.
- First you know what it is you want, and know it with conviction. You can list the things you want, like a shopping list.
- You ask “the universe” for it. The universe can be whatever you envision it is—God, some other higher power, a kind of energy source, whatever.
- You then focus upon the thing you want with an upbeat emotion like cheerfulness or enthusiasm or gratitude. You experience the emotions and feelings you have as if you already achieved or have what you want. You do this on a daily basis.
- You are open to receive it. If it doesn’t just appear, you might expect it to come in the form of some opportunity—and you should go with the flow if it feels right. Take advantage of the opportunity that will likely bring you what you want.
There isn’t any time frame. It will come about in its own time and space.
Do things that make you feel good, practice the Law of Attraction, and make your life better. Opportunities will unfold, and you can get what you want!
Keywords, Search Engines, And Your Content
Jun 11 by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in SEO
When creating content for your Web site, you should be aware of some tips in regards to keyword placement that will make for happier Search Engine results. You want to have interesting content as well as keywords in the right places and in the right density. Here are some ideas for you to make optimizing your site much more effective.
How People Search
When someone wants to find something using a Search Engine, they usually use some sort of word combination. For instance, when looking for information about where to go in San Francisco, they may type in “san francisco sights” or “activities san francisco.” You would consider this to be a specific keyword since they do not use general info about San Francisco but info specifically about sights and/or activities in that area.
Another example: Someone wants to purchase a fax ribbon. They might type in the model fax they use and “fax ribbon.”
The first thing you want to do is consider how people would search for your service or product to come up with the specific keywords you want to use. The more specific the search term is (i.e., San Francisco as the specific word and Bay Bridge for the general term), and the more specific you present your page’s content, the more targeted your visitors are supposed to be.
Headline
Your headline, of course, has to pull the reader into the rest of the body copy. So it not only has to be exciting and stimulating, but it also is advantageous to contain your specific keyword. In addition, you can also include general keywords if they fit in nicely. If you entitle your article something completely different in trying to be creative, you may find that no one will be reading it, because Search Engines and humans may find it confusing.
Then you will take the picture your headline has painted and continue it into the main body of your content.
Placement of Keywords
Before we get into covering the body specifically, we should go over the placement of keywords (although I strongly recommend you to write the content first and then go to “editing mode”!)
You will need to put the specific keyword into the text just a tad more than “normal” writing. But you also don’t want to overuse the word. One trick is to use related words or synonyms with it. To use the above example here, you would not only have “San Francisco” appear by itself, but could mention “San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf” or “the sunset over the San Francisco Bay.” You can work out combinations to use with general keywords, as well.
The closer to the beginning that your specific keyword appears, the higher you will likely score in the search engines. Put the specific keyword in the first sentence of your first paragraph. If you can include it within the first 90 characters, all the better! But if that reads awkwardly, you can put it a little later in the text. It won’t be the end of the world. And be sure to include it in the last paragraph of your text.
Now put your specific keyword into the rest of the text in a pattern something like an hourglass. You will have the word appear more frequently at the top and bottom, but it should still appear in the middle—just less often. If you put it in too many times, you may show up in Search Engines as a “keyword spammer.” This will hurt your ratings.
Formatting and Style
Formatting is important. You don’t want content that will fail to interest the visitors. If too short, it won’t really catch their attention and cause them to read on, and if too long, they will lose interest and not keep reading either.
You want a correct length that will provide high quality information that is informative and exciting. A conversational tone is excellent to engage readers, keeping to maximum five lines per each paragraph and using active verbs. Sentences shouldn’t be too long.
Text Body
Now as you tell your story, you need to remember to start strongly. What you write in your headline and the first part of your content will most likely appear in some of the Search Engine listings. You want to compel the person to click on your listing when it shows up.
You are basically building your content around that specific keyword. In other words, each page of your Web site should focus on one specific keyword.
When you over deliver with superior content, the visitor will be more inclined to read down the whole page and get to the links that will mean income for you. The content should be answering the visitor’s question of “What is in it for me?” That would be the question they have when they arrive at your site.
And with correct keyword placement, the Search Engines will “understand” what your page is about, without “feeling” they are being manipulated.
Really, the engines and human visitors both want the same thing, excellent high-quality content. So the bottom line is to have proper keyword placement, and a smart use of related words, increasing your relevancy and getting your visitors to buy your service or product.
—Marcus Hochstadt
5 CommentsPermalink Tags: keyword placement, keywords, search engines
SundayTV
Jun 8 by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Better-Than-TV
In today’s SundayTV show we have another must-know topic, the 7 Must Haves Of Entrepreneurial Success by David Nour. These must haves are so obvious when we hear them, but do we really execute? Successful entrepreneurs obviously do.
—Marcus Hochstadt
SEO vs. Design
Jun 6 by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in SEO
There’s a constant debate between designers and search engine optimizers… and maybe you can guess what it is! It’s the war between including fancy designs with images versus focusing on providing relevant text.
Web designers usually want to avoid lots of text that distracts from their aesthetic page and from their design standing out to visitors. They can get carried away with very fancy graphics and all sorts of things.
On the other side of the coin, SEOers know that just appearance isn’t the only characteristic of a good site, and they, therefore, try to achieve plenty of content that will work the magic of converting visitors into paying customers.
To be clear, design really focuses on the appearance of the pages. What sort of graphics you have on your pages, how they are laid out, and of course, the color schemes and such. That’s your design.
SEOers are looking to the optimization of your site. They focus on the quality of the text as well as the quantity. The copy also has to attract search engines. If search engines don’t find your page, you won’t have any visitors to your pages at all (unless you pay for traffic)… therefore, no one to admire the design!
You will have to get the important concept here. It’s vital that visitors receive your sales message. When you have an Internet business, you’ll have to ask yourself, “What will work the best so I get visitors, and once they arrive on my site, what will work best to have those visitors actually buy my product or service?”
Yes, like Iron Man, you can become powerful and in a causative position over the results your website gets. You have to concentrate on optimization. There isn’t such a thing as a complete balance in design and optimization. Not in this competitive world.
Simplicity in design is really the best way to go… in fact “overdoing” this simplicity. You can keep to black for your fonts and lines and use white for background. That simple. At the end of the day, it’s the content that will keep your site interesting to visitors.
When you do use images, use alt tags, title attributes, and targeted file names to optimize them for the Search Engines. But you must still realize that the old saying holds true, “Content is King!” You have to ensure that the copy on your pages contains keywords in the correct density… relevant copy too, I might add. ;-) This is where you should focus most of your attention.
If your Internet business is invisible to search engines, it’s like having a big store on a main street in town but leaving the doors locked and the windows covered. If an excellent message is lacking, people may find your site, but they will come and then go. It’s too easy for visitors to go shop somewhere else. They click the back button and they’re gone!
Online marketing is vital, and SEO is a large part of that. Without relevant, exciting and informative content, you will just sit in the dark, unvisited and unloved. Your shop will remain closed, virtually and every other way.
Paying thousands to have your site designed doesn’t automatically guarantee that you’ll be the newest and best on the Web, getting thousands of visitors weekly… or daily.
The two subjects of design and SEO don’t have to be in conflict. The visual appearance can be pleasing with simple design. It will load quickly and be easier to navigate without all the additional photos, logos, and other distracting graphics. Besides, rather than having your visitors stare at the design, make them read the actual content.
Bottom line, the content is what will keep visitors coming back, and ultimately doing business with you!
—Marcus Hochstadt
15 CommentsPermalink Tags: design, SEO
Protecting Your Computer Using Deep Freeze
Jun 3 by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Reviews
It’s now almost three weeks ago when I installed Deep Freeze on my machine. Time for a review.
I stumbled upon Deep Freeze via James’ retired blog when he talked about computer security and how it affects our Internet business and can become a pain. He recommended a small tool which is being used by Internet cafés and libraries, for example. With that neat little tool, there is…
- No need to run and install the latest version of anti-virus software
- No need to run and install the latest version of anti-spyware software
- No need to run and install the latest version of Windows Update (some of which destroy your Windows installation; isn’t that funny?)
- No need to run and install the latest version of firewall software
- No need to make a new, clean OS install every 1-2 years because the computer became too slow
- No need to worry about data loss due to hackers, trojaners, viruses, system crashes, etc etc
- No need to worry about whether or not Windows’ System Restore works (it never worked in my case)
Sounds too good to be true? Read on…
It came in handy because one of my three Operating Systems (”OS”), Windows XP German, did not run properly anymore. And shortly after this, the second one (XP English) as well not anymore. It seemed as if I had a virus, although I ran updated anti-virus and anti-spyware… (Sounds familiar?)
So, I found it to be a good time to give Deep Freeze a shot.
Preparation For Deep Freeze
Now, the tricky part was to prepare for The Day and set my system up properly. What I mean is this…
As the name implies, Deep Freeze puts your machine into a deeply frozen state. Once you reboot your system, all is back to normal. It is as if you’re bringing your computer back into the freshest or newest state possible.
Here is how one would normally install Deep Freeze…
- Format the system disk/partition
- Install the OS and all of the software you need on a daily basis
- Install Deep Freeze and tell it to freeze your system.
- Now, whenever you boot your system, all is back to the point where you installed Deep Freeze.
As mentioned, the tricky part for my particular case was the set up process. First thing I did was formatting my main hard drive.
There are four hard disks in my computer. The first one with 180 GB is for the operating systems. I split that disk into 3 partitions: #1 for Windows XP, #2 for Windows Vista, and #3 for “other stuff” such as testing a new operating system, or if the other two do not boot I still have one partition remaining to install an OS on and boot my computer to see what’s wrong with the other two partitions.
Then the next disk (180GB) is one I use to save all kinds of data (for several years already), more or less timeless stuff.
Then comes the third disk (500GB) which I use primarily for my SiteSell video productions, my Web sites’ files, product creation files, some more “stuff”, as well as for “My Documents” and the MS Outlook data file (which I do not use anymore though since I “outsourced” e-mail to GMail).
Finally, there is disk #4 (150GB) which I used to use as a backup disk for my most critical data (video production files, Outlook data file, Web sites files, etc), but because of Deep Freeze I can safely skip this step and use disk #4 for saving the day-to-day software programs there. (For performance reasons, it is a good idea to install software on a separate disk so that you have one disk for your OS and one for installed software.)
I still do use a hard drive for backup purposes, which is an external one and requires USB only, and it is excellent for when I’m traveling. (Seagate FreeAgent Go 160GB – I love it! :-)
Now, before I set up Deep Freeze, I was under the impression it would create images (i.e., clones) of all the disks that I want to freeze. To my surprise, though, it is a neat little program running in the background, which I notice by its taskbar icon only (and perhaps a 3-second message during restart).
Compare that with some of the anti-virus or anti-spyware programs out there and you know what I mean. Once you installed them, they immediately slow down your system in order to “do a good job”.
Deep Freeze, however, keeps your machine in good, fresh shape.
How Deep Freeze Works
The only thing that may annoy people and got me to change my habits: Deep Freeze resets everything.
Saved a URL in your browser’s favorites? That is lost once you reboot the OS. Saved a file on your desktop? Yup, that is lost, too. Changed settings in a software application? That’s also reversed to the previous setting. So, how do you save your day-to-day work or change preferences?
Two options for saving your day-to-day stuff…
- You let one disk (or one partition) in an unfrozen state. You can define that during installation of Deep Freeze. You specify which drive letters you want Deep Freeze to protect. In my case, I have disk #3 in unfrozen state, the one where I save and work with important day-to-day data. The crucial parts (disk #1, #2 & #4) are in frozen state though and therefore perfectly protected.
- You use a thumb drive, memory stick, or simply an external hard drive.
As for changing settings, preferences, or saving favorites, you simply tell Deep Freeze to restart your computer in an unfrozen state (by pressing the Shift key on your keyboard while double-clicking on the Deep Freeze symbol in the taskbar, then modify accordingly).
Once you reboot, you can change whatever you wish, save passwords, bookmark, etc. Once you reboot your computer again (so it’s in the frozen state again), all your changes are saved, and you can continue to work more conveniently and fully protected—without anti-virus nor anti-spyware nor any other of that crap.
Additionally, once I notice some weird happening, I simply reboot the whole system and that “weird happening” magically disappeared as if it was never there. (Just happened in a coaching session yesterday… black screen while still on the Skype phone. A quick reboot and it was solved.)
There is a downside though… Although it is supposed to restore everything, including your browse history, it does happen on my machine that visited URLs disappear from the browse history. (Though, I figured that to be a very minor downside.)
Also, in case you delete something, it restores it. Even when you hold down the Shift key while pressing Delete, it restores it. This may be a downside for some. But when you look at it from the other side, Deep Freeze is supposed to completely protect whatever you have installed and saved.
Just imagine you let one of your friends (or kids?) on your computer and s/he “accidentally” deletes crucial data. No worries with Deep Freeze… it’s all still there after reboot. :-) (That means, when you do want to delete something from protected partitions, unfreeze your computer, delete the file(s), and refreeze it again.)
Bottom Line
The Bottom Line is that I now save a whole bunch of valuable time—at least a couple hours per month—fixing idiosyncrasies on an ongoing basis. And I can sleep a bit better now. ;-)
—Marcus Hochstadt
Last Chance To Receive The James D. Brausch Letter
Jun 2 by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Pickups
This is something I highly recommend.
Since I do not offer my own printed newsletter yet, I strongly encourage you to jump on James‘ current offer on receiving The James D. Brausch Letter. It is the last time he will make this offer because on Wednesday, he will take its sales page down forever. Therefore, it is also your very last chance to join the exclusive club and receive James’ printed newsletter, The James D. Brausch Letter, and its invaluable insights and secrets. (Yes, he walks his talk.)
By the way, it’s one of the sources I learn from in order to grow my own Internet business.
—Marcus Hochstadt
SundayTV
Jun 1 by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Better-Than-TV
Al Pacino is a terrific actor. I love watching movies with him. In one of those movies he held an exceptional speech. Wanna see? Thought so… ;-)
It’s one of those we can use to push ourselves to new, unknown heights. Therefore, it’s an excellent choice for today’s SundayTV show…
Isn’t it incredible how he turned around the entire team in just 3 minutes?
—Marcus Hochstadt
3 CommentsPermalink Tags: al pacino, sundaytv
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