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The Podcaster Training Site has had a minor makeover, so here’s what’s new on the site!

A new Audacity Tutorial Video Series has been added that will take you through the steps of downloading and installing Audacity to installing the Lame Encoder to actually recording and exporting an MP3 for your podcast! Also included with this video series is a free download of Web Audio Pro that allows you to create flash buttons for your web site or blog and an additional 6 videos for converting your audio files to a podcast to enable better traffic to your blog or web site.

Some new promotional tools have been added as well as new links to additional training that you can receive!

Check out the new changes at http://www.podcastertraining.com

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Identity Theft Radio began more than two years ago as a pilot project and went for nearly 75 episodes before going into hiatus. Due to the large number of shows that The NMP Network was producing at the time, some had to go because there wasn’t enough time to produce shows on a daily basis.

Now, after nearly a year in hiatus, Identity Theft Radio will make it’s return debut in January 2009 as a weekly series. An exact date has not been announced yet, but will be closer to the debut date.

Rob White, a Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialist, will host the show and the premiere episode will start off the series again, from the beginning so that everyone will have a chance to catch up and at the same time, find out what’s new in Identity Theft!

Also, since The NMP Network also produces videos for their current shows, Identity Theft Radio will not be an exception to the rule! A simulcasted video will be produced for every episode and can be seen on our live page at http://www.newmediapro.tv

Watch for notices regarding the new day and time for Identity Theft Radio, coming in January 2009!

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Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in the U.S. The U.S. Secret Service has estimated that consumers nationwide lose $745 million to identity theft each year. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, the average victim spends 607 hours and averages $1,000 just to clear their credit records.

Identity thieves employ a variety of methods to gain access to your personal information. They may get information from businesses or other institutions by stealing it; by bribing an employee who has access to records; hacking into records; or conning information out of employees. Once identity thieves have your personal information, they may use it to commit a fraud or theft in your name.

How can you tell if you have become a victim of identity theft? Some signs include unexplained charges or withdrawals from your financial accounts; bills or other mail stop arriving (the thief may have submitted a change of address); a credit application is denied for no apparent reason, or debt collectors begin calling about merchandise or services you didn’t buy.

Your computer can be a goldmine of personal information to an identity thief. To protect yourself and your computer against identity theft consider:

• Updating virus protection software frequently. Consider setting your virus protection software to update automatically. The Windows XP operating system also can be set to check for patches automatically and download them to your computer.
• Not opening files sent to you by strangers, clicking on hyperlinks, or downloading programs from people or companies you don’t know.
• Using a firewall program, especially if you use a high speed Internet connection like cable or DSL that leaves your computer connected to the Internet 24 hours a day.
• Providing your personal or financial information through an organization’s secured website only. While not fool proof, a lock icon on the browser’s status bar or a URL for a website that begins “https:” (the “s” stands for secure), may provide additional security.
• Not storing your financial information on your laptop, unless absolutely necessary.
• Deleting all the personal information stored on a computer before disposing of it. A wipe” utility program to overwrite the entire hard drive is recommended.
• Checking with an anti-fraud education organization such as CardCops (www.cardcops.com). Card Cops runs a web site designed to help consumers determine whether their credit card numbers may have been stolen. They monitor Internet “chat rooms” where identity thieves illicitly trade and sell stolen credit card numbers. CardCops turns the information over to law enforcement authorities, but also allows consumers to access their database to see whether individual card numbers may have been stolen. In the first two months of operation, the site identified more than 100,000 stolen credit cards.

As with any crime, you can not completely control whether you will become a victim, but you can take steps to minimize your risk by remaining diligent and by minimizing outside access to your personal information.

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Some E-books combine very well with an affiliate program. When the affiliate receives some extra benefit from promoting the viral message, like being able to brand your E-book with his affiliate links, the affiliate makes a sale when a reader buys through a branded link. You benefit from increased traffic on your website because the affiliate is willing to promote the E-books for you.

Be absolutely certain that your message includes a clear call to action. There shouldn’t be any doubt whatsoever about what you intend recipients to do. Make sure that the instructions are perfectly clear so that recipients know HOW to act. The action that you require should be simple and obvious as well. Don’t make things complicated or it will confuse the reader, such as by adding numerous links.

Remember the K.I.S.S. principle Keep It Simple Stupid! The incentive should be clear to those you want to take an action. Readers will look at your offering for about seven seconds before they move on. If it takes longer than that for them to figure out what it is you want them to do, they will move on. Don’t make your message vague or difficult to comprehend. If you do, chances are you will lose them. You must respect your readers enough to express your message clearly.

Once you are sure you have an E-book that will be of value to an affiliate program, approach them with your idea and be able to show that it will be mutually beneficial.

Viral Marketing using E-books is one of many techniques that all together have a cumulative effect in attracting customers and subscribers to your business and in attracting targeted visitors to your website. You will very soon find out that this is an excellent way of increasing sales, subscribers and referrals.

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Popularity: 4% [?]

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Stop with the enforced e-mail forwards already! Trying to force or bribe people to forward your info to a friends or family in order to be rewarded or win looks skanky in today’s ultra-permission-based world. Especially when you tell visitors nothing about their friend’s or family’s privacy in the space directly next to the e-mail form.

A true viral campaign gets forwarded because consumers are compelled to do so by the glory of the content, not because you bribed them with points or something else.

What absolutely will not work:

Suggesting that e-mail recipients forward your message to their friends and family will not work. Adding a line at the bottom of your e-mail that reads “Please feel free to forward this message to a friend” is more likely to get it deleted than forwarded.

What absolutely will work:

Offering something worthy of sharing like a valuable discount, vital information or offering an incentive for sharing like additional entries into a sweepstakes or an added discount or premium service will work.

Relevant or timely information, research, or studies that are included in your e-mail might encourage the recipients to share with their family and friends. Interactive content like a quiz or test, especially if it’s fun, will inspire forwarding.

Jokes and cartoons are almost always forwarded to everybody the recipient knows. Why? Because they are entertaining and entertainment is meant to be shared.

A really cool multimedia experience is always going to achieve a lot of pass-along. Rich media is new and the novelty and tech factors alone are often enough to make the e-mail recipient eager to share it.

Oops! Almost forgot one really important thing….You can craft a brilliant e-mail following all the rules, but if a consumer visits your site and has an experience less that what was promised, you are going to achieve viral marketing, alright…the bad kind. So be certain that your product or service is ready and is as advertised.

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Popularity: 4% [?]

Well, Alister Cameron just published his lengthy and in-depth piece regarding more than just the removal of themes. In his article, he discusses GPL, describes how premium theme authors really need to think about value and all sorts of great stuff. As I mentioned in the comments which by the way, Matt M makes an appearance, if Matt were to copy Alister’s post word for word and publish it on his own blog and within the codex for plugins and themes, I’d be fine with it. I feel as though it would clear up much of the muddy waters surrounding this mess.

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Thanks to a suggestion from Josh Budde, I have downloaded the latest version of bbPress and I am now using the WordPress Integration along with this platform and have it actively running now as my Forum Platform for The NMP Network.

Click on Forums in the navigation bar at the top of the page to see our new Forums site and if you have a login registered already, it will work at the forums, if not, you can easily register and you will automatically be registered on the blog at the same time!

Let me know what you think about the new setup!

Popularity: 4% [?]