Free Computer Programs All Students Need

Every computer needs software to run, and software is expensive. But many important tasks can be performed be free programs. Here is a small selection of free programs especially for students.

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Photographs from The Holy Land

These are a handful of photos taken on my travels. All photos were taken and edited by me and may not be reproduced without my permission.

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Black Holes and Revelations

A black hole is a region of spacetime centred on a point mass called a singularity. A black hole is extremely massive and thus has an immense gravitational pull, which is in fact strong enough to prevent light escaping from it.

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I Wrote It A While Ago

The previous post was something I wrote a few months ago. I think I put it on Tumblr at the time, but Hubpages is much better suited to it. Actually, I suppose I could have put it on this blog too, but I prefer the way things look on Hubpages, apart from anything else. And hey, I left you a link didn't I?

How To Make $1000 Per Month Writing Online At Hubpages

Anyone can earn upwards of $1000 a month on Hubpages.

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Discover feed share at Flipora.com for added traffic

If you know something about InfoAxe, the website that helped you to find the sites you had previously visited, then Flipora might not be new to you. But then, after re-branding of InfoAxe to Flipora, many have not realized the added strength that the new service has in discovering and sharing web content. This article will provide a review of Flipora.com and how you can post and share feeds on this site to increase traffic to your site.

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The 10 Best Themes for Google Chrome

Google Chrome is one of the most customisable web browsers around. One of the great things about it is the ability to customise the browser's theme. There are thousands to choose from in the Chrome Web Store, but I've narrowed the list down to 10 of the best ones.

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Hubpages

I’m going to tell you about this writing site called Hubpages. This is a great way for anyone who knows something useful or interesting to make a bit of money online.

What is Hubpages?

Before I start getting into detail, I should explain the basics. Hubpages is a website that basically allows you to publish an article on the site. A hub (their word for article) can be about almost topic you want to write about. You could create a hub explaining how to wire a plug, or how to make carrot cake. You can pretty much write about whatever you want.

You don’t have to be a brilliant writer, though it does help. (It is a writing site after all). That said, some people who are awful writers do quite well. All you need is the ability to say a little bit about something people might want to read.

Can I make money with Hubpages?

Yes, and there are a number of different ways to do it. Possibly the simplest way is to use Google Adsense. After you finish your first hub you can install your Adsense ID and you will begin displaying Google Ads on your hubs. If visitors click on your Google ads, you get 60% of the revenue.

And before you ask, yes: Hubpages is okay with you doing this. Indeed, they encourage you to use AdSense, as well as to sign up for its own ad program, which pays on an impression basis through PayPal.

How to get started

If you are interested in trying out Hubpages for yourself this is how to go about it:

1. Sign up at Hubpages.
2. Create your first hub. This can be a little unnerving the first time you do it. Hubpages forces you to build your hub from “capsules”. Don’t be intimidated, just read the advice they give you and you’ll be fine. Incidentally, I recommend writing your hubs in Word or a similar program. It’s considerably easier.
3. Sign up for a Google AdSense account. For instructions on how to sign up, read this.
4. Add your AdSense Publisher ID to Hubpages. Log in to Hubpages and click on “My Account”, and then “Earnings”. Follow the on-screen instructions from there.
5. Finished. Once your ID is installed, you will make money whenever someone clicks on an ad. Warning: never click on your own ads. Google will definitely catch you and you’ll be banned from the AdSense program. And once you have been banned, it’s very difficult to get approval for a new account.

Success

Keyword research

Most people would say that this is the most important part, and that title of your hub must be based on solid keyword research. If you’re happy to put in the effort, try Google’s Keyword Research tool – throw in some keywords based on your hub’s content and check out the results. Now, I’m lazy, so I don’t really bother with keyword research and yet I still get traffic. So you still have a chance of picking up some visitors on Hubpages, even if you don’t do any research. But the more you plan your keywords, the better you’ll do.

I suggest you try using longer titles. Don’t title your hub “Doors” but something like “How to Build a Door out of Oak”. If in doubt, look at your hub. Imagine you were looking for an article like it on the web. What would you type into Google? Answer that, and you have a title that’ll probably work.

Content

More is more. Try to write about 500 words per hub. And add some pictures. For a start, on Hubpages, a little picture is displayed beside links to hubs. This is the first picture that has been used in that Hub. If you don’t have a picture, links to your hub won’t look so good and probably won’t be clicked. Also, Hubpages ranks hubs higher if they have pictures in them (or other widgets like polls, news etc.)

Links

More page views = more money from ads. Try linking to your hubs from your blog to get some traffic to them. Most traffic will initially come from within Hubpages, so getting some external links is a good idea. Plus, it’ll help improve your Hubs’ Google search rankings. Submitting them to social bookmarking sites such as StumbleUpon is also a great way to get more page views. Organising your Hubs into “Groups” is also advisable. To do this just go to “My Account” -> “Hubs” -> “Groups”.

For some quick tips on starting to earn money from Hubpages, read this article. If you have any questions or feedback, please comment.

There you go. That should be everything you need to know to get started on Hubpages. If you like the sound of it and want to try it for yourself, sign up here.

How to Find Blogs to Follow on Blogger

Unlike Tumblr or WordPress you can’t simply do a search for blogs or blog posts under the category of, say, photography. And the thing is, that’s exactly what you want to do. You want to be able to search for blogs or blog posts related to particular topics so you can read and follow them.

So, since Google won’t let us search Blogger for blogs and posts on differnet topics, how do you find blogs to follow on blogger?

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How to Sign Up for and Use Google AdSense

Before I get into any detail, I’ll quickly explain what Google AdSense is, for those of you who aren’t entirely sure. AdSense is a program from Google which allows you to display ads on your blog or website. Every time someone clicks on one of those adverts, some money is paid to Google by the advertiser. But if the ad is displayed on your site or blog, you’ll be paid a percentage of that money. This makes Google's AdSense program a great way to start making money online.

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