• Enforcing Copyright: SEOMoz has an interesting article listing four ways that you can use to combat people violating your copyrights.
• BlogOnExpo: Ever wanted to attend a blogging conference? Well, the guys from BlogOnExpo organized a virtual one, and there are some authority bloggers involved as well.
• Making Money with Clickbank: Clickbank is one of the most popular affiliate networks on the Internet. If you want to learn how to leverage it, check out this post.
• Web Design Galleries Roundup: Design galleries are useful for several purposes. You can use them to gain inspiration, to broadcast your work and so on. This roundup includes all the important ones.
• Journalists Also Get Ideas from Bloggers: Mainstream media loves to say that without them bloggers wouldn’t have stuff to blog about. Guess what, looks like journalists are get inspired from blogs frequently.
• Make More Money with Adsense: If you use Google Adsense you are probably always looking for tips to improve your earnings. This article has 20 of them.

CSSEZ

CSSEZ is an online template generator for WordPress and Movable Type blogs. You need to register at the CSSEZ site in order to use the tool. There are some good features with which you can choose between one to four columns for your blog, define the column width, padding, margin, border, font and link styles. You can upload your background image or create one with the image maker.

dotemplate

dotemplate provides 12 free templates that you can choose from. You can choose one and go on to customizing your selected template by changing the color, font, text, position of text, etc. in the background, container, footer, menus, and boxes. You can apply effects like drop shadow, gradient, and round corners. When you are through customizing, you can download the template on your system. This is quite a convenient tool for those wishing to create their own templates without much HTML knowledge. However, an option for uploading your own images would have made this tool better.

Drupal Theme Generator

Drupal Theme Generator is a MS Excel based theme generator for Drupal sites you can use to create PHPtemplate and Xtemplate themes for your Drupal sites. The tool is free yet feature rich with some cool ones like random color theme generator, previewing your theme on your system, HTML color assistant, and integratingCSS, JavaScript, PHP , and HTML code in to the themes from an external file, etc. There are also nine themes that you will get when you download the tool.

Eris’ Template Generator

Eris’ Template Generator provides 11 skins for your blog with three column options for each skin. It supports Diaryland, Diary-x, Movabletype, old Blogger, WordPress, B2, and a free HTML site templates. You can add your tagline, meta tags and include links to to the index, archives, email, notes, profile, buddylist, and last 5 entries for Diaryland, last 10 entries for Movable Type, calendar for B2, blogroll for WordPress, XHTML compliant and content copyright notices, webrings, chat screen names, and buttons.

Firdamatic

Firdamatic is an online template generator for old Blogger and Movable Type blogs. You can select from the two column or three column options. Simply enter the information on the relevant boxes on the online form and click generate template. You can add your site name, title image, and choose the font and font color as well.

HTML PHP CSS Website Template Generator

HTML PHP CSS Website Template Generator is an online tool to create a PHP site template, along with its CSS and HTML files. You can customize the style sheet, header, sidebars, header, and footer by adding your font, color, margin and alignment preferences on the template generator’s online form. You can then generate the scripts, which you can copy and save for your use.

PsycHo

PsycHo is an open-source online template generator for the old Blogger, PersianBlog, and BlogFa platforms. You can set your page title, body background color, title background, description, text, spacing, and choose from four column options. You can preview your template and get the code in raw html. It’s simple to use and also works well for those without much HTML knowledge. The good part of PsycHo is that if your Internet connection breaks in between, you can still work on and complete designing your template. This is a good tool but needs to support more blog platforms like the new Blogger and WordPress.

Templatr

Templatr provides you more than 20 layouts, and formatting options for various page elements including pages, header, footer, titles, margin, padding, border, and more for your WordPress blog. It also provides you an upload tool with which you can upload your site graphics. You can download the template on your system once you are complete.

Weebly

Weebly is a neat site template generator with more than 15 pre-built designs. You can choose one of these designs and customize them by adding various elements like ads, feed icons, maps, contact form, define the text and picture layouts, columns, add Google and YouTube videos, etc. Once you are through, you can publish the site on your custom domain. Quite handy for all those who wish to make a quick personal site.

WordPress Theme Generator

WordPress Theme Generator is a cool online tool that will enable you to create your own custom made WordPress themes without the need to know much html and css languages. The tool provides options to choose your blog name, site body size, sidebar location and size, add a third column, menu layout, color and text schemes, and add tag cloud, archives and search box. You can upload your site logo online and link to it from your template. Once you are through, you can preview your creation and download it in a zip file.

It happened in the week before Christmas and has resulted in a tremendous wave of support from bloggers all around the world. David has now finally gotten his domain back and his story is one of despair, frustration, resolve and happiness. Hearing about David really made me think in terms of how safe our domains really are?

Since I’m not technically savvy (except for self taught stuff) it would be hard to know whether I’m currently exposed to hackers and crackers or whether there is nothing to worry about. David’s demise was initiated by a security issue in GMail, but how do we know whether we don’t have the same issues with other things instead?

The thought is scary and therefore I went and dug up some information from the net to help me understand on what can be done to help protect our domains and our computers.

Email:

Clients such as GMail, Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express and other email programs do contain security loopholes that can be accessed by hackers or crackers through a backdoor. They can infest our computers and access private data without our knowledge and often this kind of infection can be happening under our nose and through our contact email folder too.

To prevent this we need to make sure we run security updates and also have an updated firewall and virus protection at all times. Norton, CA, Zone Alarm are amongst some of the more widely used protection suites.

In the worst case scenario hackers will steal our private data and damage our computer beyond usability. That is why it is so important to backup our files every day/week or month.

FTP:

We use FTP to upload files to the servers and this can easily be exposed just like email programs. Hackers will send a Trojan style backdoor program that accesses your computer and send private data through the Internet without your consent.

An option to stop this from happening is to never open any attachments from emails we don’t know, expect or find rather strange. Also, you could un-tick your firewalls FTP access and only allow when you are in the process of uploading files.

WordPress:

This is a biggie since most of us are on running WordPress these days and all though the bloggers who run the free WordPress blogs can’t really help themselves except use a rather complicated password and update it often, those with self hosted WordPress blogs can.

I found an excellent white paper that will give you certain peace of mind and lets you configure your WordPress security to protect against unjustly intrusion.

Secure WordPress White Paper

Conclusion:

I think it is suffice to say that we can do simple things to protect ourselves against hackers and crackers. One would be to use different and complicated passwords and chance them frequently.

The other would be to use common sense when using online applications. Plugins, Widgets, Share Ware and Software in general have the potential to do us harm and often we use them on recommendation and trust bases from other bloggers.

If you rather want to exert caution, then it might help to test them on an offline server first. Xamplite is a good way to test all your WordPress related themes, Plugins and more offline.

The threat of being hacked certainly exists for all of us, but with a little information and tweaking we can help ourselves. Another great way to stay in touch with what hackers and crackers are up to is to search for online forums and websites where these people congregate.

Elance charges a service fee of between 6.75 % – 8.75 % for paid jobs.

Guru is designed to service freelancers of all kinds and has a very active bulletin board. I’m a free member of Guru and so far I haven’t managed to score a job with them. I believe that it is probably better paying for membership if you are serious at scoring a decent writing job.

Guru offers FREE as well as paid memberships and they range from $29.95 to $99.95 per quarter. Once you get paid for a job well done, Guru takes between 5 % – 10 % commission.
ScriptLance is probably the most known website for freelancers all around the world. It is also the most notorious since most freelancers find work there first. Many freelancers sell themselves really cheap there just to get some work and this is damaging the whole industry.

I personally have had some great finds there but the secret is to stand out from the crowd. Don’t sell yourself short!

ScriptLance is FREE for all and they take a 5 % commission on work paid to you.
oZLance is a freelance website focused to bring more connections to Australian and New Zealand professionals and connecting business owners with freelancers. The site is still very young but is also open to worldwide registration.

You can sign up for FREE and pay a small fee to get accredited if you want to for better exposure. There isn’t much traffic yet and you won’t find too many writing gigs, but having said this, there are the occasional bargains.

Freelance Writing is one of those sites to get lost in easily. They have a huge range of information and links leading to other related websites. Whenever I visit the site I find myself still browsing an hour later. So be warned!

Journalism Jobs is simply put a job website for many professionals around the world. Some are in house based and others allow you to work remote.

Get A Freelancer is similar to ScriptLance and again it is probably more so a good site for beginners in freelance writing since the money is mostly very bad. There is nothing wrong with writing for $5 an article when you first start out, but once you gain credibility and experience this is simply ridiculous.

Writer Lance is a new favorite of mine. There are plenty of job offers and they seem to pay a decent rate too. Registration is FREE and they charge you a 3 % fee of your income.

Suite 101 is an article/freelance site that invites freelance writers into their network. They claim to get 6 millions of views every month and will pay you a share of their income. What is great about Suite 101 is the fact that they have such a broad article gallery where you will find something to write about in your chosen field.

You Can sign up for FREE and start earning revenue straight away by writing great articles.

iFreelance is one of the best freelance websites because of the sheer amount of good paying jobs available. Membership levels vary between $ 3.91 – $ 6.58/month but that is all you pay. iFreelance doesn’t charge you a commission fee of your earnings. So fire away by applying for your dream jobs.

Helium is a freelance writers platform that lets you indulge into you craft. Possible income happens from being very active on the site and write a lot. Articles are voted by the active community and you can also compete for paid freelancing gigs.

Helium has a huge active reader and writer base and you can write about any topic you like.

CraigsList has been a secret money maker for many entrepreneurs on the Internet for month. It is a huge job and advertising network that spans across the globe and is free to use. You can source writing jobs and a lot more.

Pro Blogger Job Board is updating all kind of online jobs every week. You will find blogging jobs, writing, design and more. But you have to be quick in snapping up the good ones as his site is heavily trafficked.

Please remember that in order to land yourself some good paying freelance writing jobs you will need to be professional in your approach and possibly have an online resume. It also helps if you have client testimonials from past clients since it validates your claim to fame.

Make it a habit to stand out from the crowd in order to get noticed. I have personally managed to snap some jobs because I dared to be different so it has served me well.

But always be true to yourself and don’t lie about your experience – it will only bite you in the bum. If you have to start low, then do it. Work it and before you know you will be able to earn a satisfactory income as a freelance writer

If you have a blog and you want to get paid for blogging, you can join Smorty. What you need to do is sign up and then give your details and blog details. Make sure that your blog meets the application rules. A Smorty’s staff will review your application. Usually the process is about one or two days. However, this process can take up to 30 days. If they approve your blog, you can accept available opportunities.

For bloggers, Smorty is a good way to make money. For advertisers, Smorty is good to advertise online business or site through blog. What are you waiting for? Visit Smorty to monetize your blog or advertise on blogs.

McKay Hatch is currently a freshman student at South Pasadena High School in California. If you live around the area, you probably know that this school is pretty much filled with rich kids that don’t really give a damn about what is happening. McKay was bothered with the constant “Bad Words” around him, so he decided to open his own club, No Cussing Club. The club consists of some of his fellow peers including himself as the president, but because of recent issues taken to court, the numbers jumped to thousands all over 32 states and 11 countries. It seems pretty simple to join the “NCC” because the only main requirement is to follow their motto, “Ya Wanna Hang with Us? Don’t Cuss!”

The South Pasadena Council seems to be interested in McKay’s idea for a “cuss-free” city. It just seems like this kid wants to do so much, but at such a young age, he’s receiving huge criticisms including threat calls because of what he is doing. I certainly think this is a bad idea for little McKay because limiting speech is contrary to the freedom of speech.

Knowing that McKay is such a little activist, his parents are the ones that made him who he is. It seems like in 2006, his parents, Brent and PheliciaHatch, wrote a book called “Raising a G-Rated Family in an X-Rated World.” There’s a whole E-Store on the No Cussing Club website that sells their books including a “Positive Hugging Card?” What the heck is a Hugging Card anyways? It’s a card that uses your thumb print to figure out how many hugs you need. It is mentioned that this card have been sold over 3million times, which if you convert it to 5card packs and $10 per pack, is $6 million dollars. I don’t think that anyone would actually buy this piece of junk, but I might be wrong. Now because of the huge publicity that McKay got himself, he decided that he could come out with his own 5-song album, which also costs $10. With that said, I want to show you the the “No Cussing Club” music video. *Update* – It seems like the “No Cussing Club” music video is not allowed to be embedded in any site, so I can only provide the link to the YouTube video. Click Here.

It’s just hilarious seeing how the Hatch family is trying so hard to gain a “Bad Word” free society. I give them thumbs up for trying to get more fans into their group, but I pretty much think this won’t work. This could also be a huge money-making plot/scam in disguise judging by all the facts that are given, but then again it is only my own opinion.

A monotone Gray and Red Magazine style layout from Adii freelance Web Designer. The theme is based on Adii’s own blog theme.

Preview the theme: Preview it here

Download the theme: WP-Polaroid

As Steve said to me “Advertising is a double edged sword, the more people know about you the more spam you get.” This is especially true as eBay and PayPal are two of the biggest targets for phishing attacks.

What MailWasher Pro does is to check your email on the server only downloading headers and the first 200 characters of the email to your PC. It doesn’t download the full message or any attachments. Much of the email is automatically marked as spam (highlighted in red) as soon as it’s downloaded. email is checked against known spam lists and your own personal blacklist and safe list.

You can scan all spam just in case it’s miscategorised an email, and from then on process the email and spam will be deleted from the server. MailWasher Pro then launches your email client so that you can download just the remaining legitimate email with no spam.

There are other attractive features such as the ability to send a fake “bounce” email, this tells the sender that they sent email to an email address that doesn’t exist and may in the future actively reduce the amount of spam you receive. You can also report spam to several spam blacklist servers including Spamcop who will report the spam to the relevant ISP.

When installing MailWasher Pro it makes sense to schedule automatic email checking on the program, but to disable it in your email application. If there is an email you wish to send a quick reply to you can click reply in MailWasher Pro and it’ll open the email in your email application een before you download the mail.

There are only a couple of things I dislike about MailWasher Pro, and they’re minor in comparison to the job it performs. It would be nice if the recycle bin displayed totals of the spam it holds, but you have to check the program statistics to see this. The only other thing I’d love the program to do is when it launches outlook after deleting spam to trigger an automatic send/receive to download legitimate emails, currently you have to click to do this manually.

For less than £20.00 MailWasher Pro is a superb tool to reduce the time handling spam takes. Totals for today show that 93% of the emails I’ve received were spam, and that’s just too many to handle manually. If you’re starting to (or already do) struggle to cope with a deluge of spam I’d highly recommend trialling MailWsher Pro, and it’s at no risk – they offer a 180 day money back guarantee.