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There are a few tips that can keep you and your credit safe form online and financial predators:

Many people who are careful about paying bills on time and having minimal debts are shocked each year to find that they have low credit scores. In many cases, this happens as a result of identity theft. Identity theft is a type of crime in which people take your personal information and steal that information to pose as you in order to get access to your accounts or identity.

For example, someone with your PIN numbers can remove small amounts of money from your bank account each month or someone can use your name and personal information to get credit cards in your name and use those credit cards with no intention of paying back the money. You are stuck with the large debts and the poor credit score.

To prevent identity theft, always check your account statements carefully each month. Report any suspicious activity or any charges you don’t recognize at once. Also check your credit report regularly and immediately investigate any new credit accounts you do not recognize – this is the best way of detecting and acting on identity theft.

If you have been the victim of identity theft, report to the police at once and get a police statement. Send copies of this to your bank and credit bureaus. Better yet, get the credit bureaus to attach the report to your credit report, if you can. Close all your accounts and reopen new ones. You should not have to pay for someone else’s illegal activity.

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Many people dream of blogging for profit, and this goal is not far beyond the reach of someone with average intelligence, a willingness to work hard, and a basic grasp of blogging technology. However, very few people manage to reap the profits they want from their blog. Most people who attempt to make money with their blogs do not succeed for two reasons. Often, bloggers have unrealistic expectations of how fast their readership will grow and how much money they will make, and when these expectations are not met the disappointment can crush the desire to continue blogging. The other trap that many bloggers fall into has to do with lack of planning. If you want to turn a
profit as a blogger, the key to success is to make a realistic plan and stick with it.

To succeed at blogging for profit, the main thing that you will need is a large readership. The higher your traffic, the more advertisers will agree to pay you. However, cultivating the regular visitors that you will need in order to make a profit isnt easy. As more and more blogs appear each day, having a great idea or a wonderful writing style is no longer enough to get attention. You need to be able to market your blog effectively.

Too many bloggers spend all of their time writing posts and almost no time marketing their project. To be certain, updating as often as you can is a great way to keep your blog high on blogrolls and high in blog search engines like technorati, and once your readers know that you update frequently they will return to your site on a regular basis. However, it does not matter how often you update if nobody is reading your page, so dont skimp on the time that you spend drawing visitors to your site. To make your dreams of blogging for profit a reality, try decreasing your number of posts and using some of that time to draw new visitors by setting up link exchanges with other bloggers, making contacts in
the blog community, and following other established modes of winning traffic.

Of course, even if you are a marketing genius or have a really great idea for a blog, success is not going to happen overnight. Building the kind of readership that blogging for profit requires takes time, and in all likelihood it will be at least several months before you are able to turn much of a profit. Try to stay committed to your blogging project during this initial rough period. To stay motivated, set goals for how often you will update and how many readers you want to attract, and then reward yourself for sticking with your plan.

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The types of credit you have are a factor in calculating your credit score. In general, lenders like to see that you are able to handle a range of credit types well. Having some form of personal credit – such as credit cards – and some larger types of credit – such as a mortgage or auto loan – and paying them off regularly is better than having only one type of credit.

Keep Your Credit Score Safe

If you have a lower credit score that you would like, odds are that the score is caused by some small financial mistake or oversight you have made in the past. Not every person with bad credit has a low credit score caused by something they did, though. Sometimes, other people’s criminal activity can affect your credit score.

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If you have a lot of debt, your credit score will suffer. Paying down your debts to a minimum will help elevate your credit score. For example, if you have a $1000 limit on your credit card and you regularly carry a balance of $900, you will be a less attractive credit risk to lenders than someone who has the same credit card but carries a smaller balance of $100 or so. If you are serious about improving your credit score, then start with the largest debt you have and start paying it down so that you are using a less large percentage of your credit total.

In general, try to make sure that you use no more than 50% of your credit. That means that if your credit card has a limit of $5000, make sure that you pay it down to at least $2500 and work at carrying no larger balance. If possible, reduce the debt even more. If you can pay off your credit card in full each month, that is even better. What counts here is what percentage of your total credit limit you are using – the lower the better.

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*WordPress 2.6 Beta Released* – Ryan Boren, lead developer of WordPress announced on Monday that the first beta for WordPress 2.6 was released into the wild. 2.6 won’t be as big of a release as 2.5 but you can expect such features as Post Revisions, Better SSL support for the Admin, drag and drop sortable galleries, customizable default avatars and much more. If the beta period goes well, expect to see WordPress 2.6 near July 7^th or July 14^th . – http://boren.nu/archives/2008/06/23/wordpress-26-beta-1/

*Anatomy Of A WordPress Theme* – The talented Lisa Sabin Wilson has published her presentation from a meetup that was held in Wisconsin which dives into the anatomy of a magazine type theme. The presentation goes over four different elements to achieve the magazine layout. The article along with the presentation should give you enough of a base to stand on to create your very own magazine theme. – http://myblogit.net/2008/06/13/wordpress-magazine-themes-quick-anatomy-lesson/

*123 Reg Hacked* – 123 Reg, the self acclaimed largest web host in the UK has had their WordPress powered site hacked. The blog was hosted on a subdomain and upon doing a google search for terms such as Viagra, cialis ect, 123 Reg ends up in the search results which is a clear indication that the hackers have injected code into their installation. According to a comment published on the blog who reported the issue, a representative of 123 Reg has stated that the bug related to the issue has been fixed and they became aware of the issue through Google Alerts. However, for the time being, the trail of destruction has been made with search results already archived in Google. – http://www.ppcblog.co.uk/seo/123-reg-hacked-awghfjuhrfgh/

*Plugin of the week – WordPress Exploit Scanner 0.1 -*Donnacha, lead developer of WordPress MU has released the first version of his WordPress Exploit Scanner plugin. This plugin searches the files on your site for a few known strings sometimes used by hackers, and lists them with code fragments taken from the files. It also makes a few checks of the database, looking at the active_plugins blog option, the comments table, and the posts table. It also allows the blog owner to search for whatever string they like which could come in handy when new exploit code is used in a hack. *-*http://ocaoimh.ie/2008/06/26/wordpress-exploit-scanner-01/

If you would like to know more about what is going on within the world of WordPress, visit www.weblogtoolscollection.com or tune in to my weekly podcast called WordPress Weekly which airs live at 10 PM EST on Friday evenings.

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This was another great episode and it lasted more than 3 1/2 hours! Lots of great information, as always, and one of the highlights of the show was the announcement of my new Co-Host, Jeff Chandler (from WordPress Weekly fame) and he started his “new position” on this episode. Jeff and I will be collaborating each week about show topics, formats, etc. and will bring you a lot of new insight as the show continues to grow!

Our main topic was Traffic Created From Social Madness and Jeff came in on his debut episode thanks to his background of using social sites like Digg, Delicious, and others.

Jeff gave his weekly WordPress News Segment (notes to be posted today) and Josh gave his segment, now called The Budde Podcasting Network Segment and after our main topic, Patti gave some great advice on her Broadcasting Tips Segment.

We got a late start due to some tech issues and as I pointed out at the beginning of the show, it wouldn’t be Podcaster Training without the technical issues!

The after show went for more than 2 hours and we had almost 30 people come on throughout the length of the show. Even the late comers got something out of this episode and we are looking forward to more great episodes in the future!

My show notes are included in this free eBook called Social Madness and you can download from the link below! Enjoy!

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Segment Name Change

I’ve changed the name of the Segment to the Budde Podcasting Network Segment. Although, we’ll bring in stuff from every show, not every show every week. But, You’ll hear content from each of my shows, except for TWTHS.

Wetpaint Update

Wetpaint was down on Wednesday for a good part of the night – They added new servers to the network because they are nearing the creation of the Millionth wiki. Along with them nearing this – They have a lot of things on the White board for future releases.

Wetpaint Contest ALERT: Wetpaint is having a contest to see if you, yes you! can either create the one millionth wiki or refer the person that creates it. If you create the one millionth wiki you will be getting a Wetpaint “Going Green” package and you will be able to give an organization a “Going Green” package. Along with the Creator, the Refer will receive a “Going Green” package as well. What is this going green package you ask? Read this below to find out:

Wetpaint will offset the approximate annual emissions of the average U.S. home (25,210 lbs. of CO2), the average U.S. vehicle (8,403 lbs. of CO2), and 50,419 lbs.of CO2 of emissions of the organization of choice of the millionth site creator and referrer, if eligible, for a total value of $500 per package. Applying offsets to be provided by Terrapass.

For more information and to read the fine print – visit the One Million Sites wiki on Wetpaint.

For Earth’s sake, build a free website

BPN Update

As I said last week, we’re 3 weeks behind in development.. I am getting there, not ready for testing quite yet. But, we’ll say by the end of next week we should be good to start the testing on the new design and layout. Stay tuned!

Josh’s Blog Update

UPDATED: I have disabled Disqus comments so that I would be able to enable the Comment License for the Blog and any comments that were posted during the Disqus implementation have been re-added manually by Me.

I have added a new theme to my blog along with a newly designed sidebar. We’ve kept the Disqus comments and I am working on getting two new plugins called Comment License 1.2 and Pingpress 2.1.4. Those should probably be up and running by tomorrow sometime.

TalkShoe Tip of the Week

Are you hosting a TalkShoe show (Dialed in) and your listeners are complaining that they don’t have a stream on their show? This is a streaming failure that TalkShoe is still working on getting fixed ASAP! To resolve this you will need to contact someone on the TalkShoe Support Team and they can Start your stream or restart your stream. You can contact Josh on Skype or via his phone line (585.682.2594).

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Wow! This is a BIG announcement! So big, I just had to tell you about it RIGHT NOW!! So here goes…Tonight on Podcaster Training I will announce….

GOTCHA! You’ll have to listen in to find out what the big announcement is! I’m not going to spoil it here. Sorry.

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Since there are already lots of people getting into affiliate marketing, it is no wonder that the competition is getting stiff. The challenge is to try and outdo other affiliates and think of ways to be able to attain this.

There are also many tips and techniques being taught to these affiliate in order to best plan their strategy for their program to work effectively so that more earnings will be achieved.

What better way to wow your prospects and customers than to record and publish top notch, full motion and streaming screen-captured videos. Nothing like feeling your hard work getting paid by having your customers jumping up excitedly in great anticipation to buy your product right there and then.

This is Camtasia in action. It is a proven fact; giving your customers something they can actually see can explode your online sales instantly.

You do not need to have trainings and education to be able to know how this system can work for your affiliate program. Anyone can create stunning videos, from multimedia tutorials and step-by-step presentations available online. The process is like having your customers seated next to you and looking at your desktop, as you show them the things they need to see and hear. All this done step by step.

For those who does not know it yet, how does Camtasia works?

1. It can record your desktop activity in a single click. No need to have to save and compile all your files because it is recorded right there and then.

2. Can easily convert your videos into web pages. Once converted you can have your customers visiting that certain page. Videos are easier to understand and take in unlike reading texts which oftentimes is a trying thing to do.

3. Upload your pages. Publish them through blogs, RSS feed and podcasts. You may want your Camtasia videos to get around and reach out to other people that may be potential customers in the future. Nothing like being visible in many sites and pages to advertise yourself and get your message through.

There are other things you can do with your affiliate program using Camtasia. You can…

Create stunning multimedia presentations that are proven to increase sales because all the senses are engaged. This also has the tendency to reduce skepticism among hard-to-please customers.

Reduce refunds and other customer issues by demonstrating visually how to use your product and how to do it properly. Complaints will also be minimized because all the facts and the presentation are there for the customers to just see and hear about.

Promote affiliate products and services using visual presentations. This is an effective way of redirecting your viewers straight to your affiliate website after they are finished with the video. Make the most of the presentation by putting your site location in the end and make them go there directly if they want more information.

Multiple your online auction bids exponentially when you give your readers a feel of what you have to offer. Based from reports, auctions that includes pictures increases bidding percentage by 400%. Imagine how much higher it will be if it were videos.

Publish valuable infoproducts that you can sell for a much higher price. It will be all worth the price because of the full colored graphics menu and templates that you will be using.

Minimize miscommunication with your customers. Instantly showing them what you want they wanted in the first place is making them understand clearly the essence of your affiliate program. The good thing about multimedia is, nothing much can go wrong. It is there already.

These are just some of the things you can do with Camtasia that can be very helpful in your chosen affiliate program.

Note that the main purpose of using Camtasia is to boost the income that is generated from your affiliate program. Although it can be used for entertainment and enjoyment purposes, which is not really a valid reason why you choose to get all through that trouble.

Try to focus on the goal that you have set upon yourself to and achieve that with the use of the things that may be quite a lot of help in increasing your earnings.

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If you have many lines of credit or several huge debts, you make a worse credit risk because you are close to “overextending your credit.” This simply means that you may be taking on more credit than you can comfortably pay off. Even if you are making payments regularly now on existing bills, lenders know that you will have a harder time paying off your bills if your debt load grows too much.

The higher your debts the greater your monthly debt payments and so the higher the risk that you will eventually be able to repay your debts. Plus, statistical studies have shown that those with high debt loads have the hardest time financially when faced with a crisis such as a divorce, unemployment, or sudden illness.

Lenders (and credit bureaus who calculate your credit score) know that the more debt you have the greater problems you will have in case you do run into a life crisis.

In order to have a great credit score, avoid taking out excessive credit. You should stick to one or two credit cards and one or two other major debts (car loan, mortgage) in order to have the best credit rating. Do not apply for every new credit line or credit card “just in case.” Borrow only when you need it and make sure to make payments on your debts on time.

You should also know that taking out lots of new credit accounts in a relatively short period of time will cause your credit score to nosedive because it will look as though you are being financially irresponsible.

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