Hey Folks!

Have you ever had days when your computer is just ridiculously slow and typing a short paragraph takes you several minutes instead of seconds?

Whether it’s Facebook, Google, the Address Bar, a Blog Post or even Notepad that you’re typing into, the letters show up half a second to 3 seconds later and it takes you an absolute AGE to get anything written. Sometimes the cursor will skip to the middle of the last sentence and it’ll look like gobbledygook (Is that how it’s spelt?;)).

Well I had this problem today and figured “If i’m having this issue, odds on others are having it too” – So I popped over to Google and had a little search.

JEEZ!! There’s a TON of folk having this keyboard lag problem and hundreds of forum threads and blog posts that give you possibilities of what may be wrong with your Laptop or PC. However, most of these places only give you a snippet of what to look for when you’re trying to fix that slow typing problem.

So, I decided to tie them all together and give you the definitive fixes to get your computer back to it’s normal speed.

I’m going to be using Mozilla Firefox for this example, but the workarounds are pretty similar in IE / Chrome / Safari etc.

OK Step 1,

DISABLE All Add-Ons, Personas & Extensions

Disabling an add-on will turn it off without removing it:

1. At the top of the Firefox window, click on the Firefox button (Tools menu in Windows XP), and then click Add-ons. The Add-ons Manager tab will open.
2. In the Add-ons Manager tab, select the Extensions or Appearance or Plugins panel.
3. Select the add-on you wish to disable
4. Click the Disable button.
5. Click Restart now if it pops up. Your tabs will be saved and restored after the restart.

(To re-enable the add-on, find it in the list of Add-ons and click Enable, then restart Firefox.)

Easy enough to Google Instructions for Safari / Opera / Chrome / IE

Still Having Problems? No Worries… on to STEP 2

Uninstalling Recent Java Updates

Keeping old and unsupported versions of Java on your system presents a serious security risk plus can bloat and slow down your computer.
Uninstalling older versions of Java from your system ensures that Java applications will run with the most up-to-date security and performance improvements on your system.

Here’s how:

Remove older versions of Java in the same way as you would remove any other software from your Windows computer.

Windows 7 and Vista – Uninstall Programs

1. Click Start
2. Select Control Panel
3. Select Programs
4. Click Programs and Features
5. Select the program you want to uninstall by clicking on it, and then click the Uninstall button.

You may need administrator privileges to remove programs.

Windows XP – Uninstall Programs

1. Click Start
2. Select Control Panel
3. Click the Add/Remove Programs control panel icon
4. The Add/Remove control panel displays a list of software on your system, including any Java software products that are on your computer. Select any that you want to uninstall by clicking on it, and then click the Remove button.

NB: Older versions of Java may appear in the program list as J2SE Runtime Environment or Java 2 Runtime Environment.

After this, do a System Reboot. See you in 5:)

Most of you will now find that your typing speed is back to normal. However, if the first 2 speps didn’t cure your slow typing lag, then it looks like you’ve got some serious proccesses running in the background that are bloating your system causing it to dramatically slow down and this can easily be addressed in Step 3.

Disabling Startup Programs Using MSCONFIG

Most people know that the more programs you have running on your computer at any one time, the more likely it is that your computer will either run slowly or even crash. What most people don’t know is that every time you boot your computer a whole load of “hidden” programs load in the background. Some of these hidden programs are essential, but most aren’t. Turning off some of these hidden programs using MSCONFIG can significantly increase your computer’s performance and reliability.

To access MSCONFIG in Windows 7 click “Start” and type “MSCONFIG” (without the speech marks)

In Windows XP click “Start” > “Run” and type “MSCONFIG” (without the speech marks)

You should now have the MSCONFIG box up on screen: Click the “Startup” Tab

When your computer starts up, it will automatically load up a ton of programs that you don’t need but will run in the background, clogging up and slowing down your machine. For example, on my setup Quicktime by Apple is set to run even when i’m not using it – That’s silly, so i’ve disabled it. Simple:)

NB: Only untick programs that you recognise as some of them will be neccessary for Windows to run smoothly. If you’re not sure about a program either google “Is it safe for me to disable *program name*” or check out http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_search.php which has a huge list of which programs are safe to disable or not!!

Once you have ticked / unticked your startup programs, hit “apply”, “OK” and then reboot.

By using the above methods i’ve sped up my machine considerably and it’s faster now than when I got it out of the box.

Have a great day folks and if you found this post useful spread the love with either a comment, like or share etc. Cheers!!

Well, not really a battle – 2 totally different animals, but here’s something that happened to me this evening while transferring an Actinic online store on to my Hostgator servers (and by the amount of forum posts on the subject, it’s happened to a LOT of other folks too).

Unfortunately no-one seemed to come up with a solution. UNTIL NOW that is.

Here’s the thing:

I run a great slogan t-shirt company http://www.timebombtshirts.com (don’t look at it people – it’s RUDE!;)) and migrated it to hostgator – no problem it seemed. Then on testing, when I clicked “Checkout Now” button the following error appeared:

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /cgi-bin/os000001.pl on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an

ErrorDocument to handle the request.

EEK!

I’ve been on to live chat support with Hostgator for the last 1/2 an hour and finally found the answer. Instead of me going through each step (checking paths to cgi-bin / perl / waiting for nameservers to fully propagate etc…) I thought i’d just give you the transcript which you are free to copy, paste and send to hostgator (or your particular hosting company) which should get you a super-speedy response and a working website in a matter of a few minutes…

[Initial Question]: Hi, I am having an issue when clicking “Checkout Now” on timebombtshirts.com – The following error appears:Forbidden You don’t have permission to access /cgi-bin/os000001.pl on this server. Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request. Possibly a perl script or permissions error?
(2:18 pm) [System] Customer has entered chat and is waiting for an agent.
(2:21 pm) [Ehsan M.] Welcome to HostGator.com Live Chat. My name is Ehsan, and I will be happy to assist you with your inquiry.
(2:22 pm) [Ehsan M.] Hello, how are you doing today?
(2:24 pm) [Richie]: Hi Ehsan, all good thanks:) – permissions are ok on cgi-bin… path to perl and cgi are all correct – bit stumped as to what the problem is.
(2:27 pm) [Ehsan M.] Sure no problem. To further examine this issue I do need to verify you
(2:27 pm) [Ehsan M.] For security purposes, I will need to verify your identity by having you provide your account’s billing credentials in the popup that will soon follow this message. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
(2:27 pm) [AccountVerifyRequest]: {“requestedBy”:”******”}
(2:30 pm) [AccountVerifyAttempt]: {“clientId”:”1*******”,”

Hey Folks,

Over the last couple of months i’ve been testing a few Social Bookmarking & SEO tools and wanted to give you a heads-up about the ones that i’ve found useful and have driven traffic to my sites. Out of the 12 i’ve tested, only TWO have really shown decent results.

Now, I have only been running these tools for 8-10 weeks so I’m not saying that these are the be-all and end-all, but the results have come in fast and if you’re looking at promoting things like Product Launches or time-sensitive offers, you could do a lot worse. First up we’ve got Ultimate Demon from Edwinsoft

Here’s their blurb:

**********************************************

UltimateDemon is a powerful SEO automation tool for your content distribution efforts. With UltimateDemon, you no longer need to own multiple tools. It’s like a “one-stop shop” that offers you a wide variety of websites you can submit your content to.

Unlike many other tools, UltimateDemon offers a very user-friendly interface that has not been seen anywhere else. With UltimateDemon’s seamless submission process, you can now build an unlimited number of links and increase traffic to your website without the need to babysit the software.

There is simply no other software in the market that perform task with the same level of simplicity and automation as UltimateDemon.

System Requirements:

• (.NET Framework 3.5) + (Windows XP.SP3 x86/x64 or Windows Vista x86/x64 or Windows 7 x86/x64).
• MAC OSX is not supported. To run in OSX, Virtual Machine that runs Windows OS is required.

*************************************************

Buy Ultimate Demon @ $47 per month <–Yep, my affiliate link

Buy Ultimate Demon @ $347 One Off Fee <–and again:-)

There’s a ton of different uses for Ultimate Demon – I mainly use it for Social Bookmarking, but here’s what it can do at a glance.

1) Account creation -> Create thousands of accounts on various platforms to sell on SEO forums, and places like fiverr.

2) Web 2.0 -> Use Ultimate Demon to sign up and publish to certain Web 2.0 properties which still tend to be favoured by search engines. Then you can blast thousands of forum and other links at those pages to rank highly in Google for competitive keywords. Unfortunately for the more “White Hat” link builders, this technique still works like a charm – Use it to your advantage.

3) Mass content syndication -> Publish your content to tons of article sites, Web 2.0 sites, video sites, press release sites and more. Great for real traffic generation from multiple sources and generate contextual links (which search engines still love a lot).

4) Regular Link Building -> Just crank out backlinks to where-ever you want using the bookmarking tool and the forum profile generator. (Especially after you import thousands of bookmarking sites and forum profile sites – you can find these fairly easily online). All with auto captcha running and all on a schedule, so things run while you tend to your other priorities in life. (who wants to slave for hours over link building?)

Or build links more strategically into link pyramids and link wheels. Then blast simple links to all of the lower pyramid levels and spokes of your link wheels. This way you build links to your money pages that have tons of “link juice”.

You can go as white hat or as black hat as you want with Ultimate Demon.

Buy Ultimate Demon @ $47 per month <–Yep, my affiliate link

Buy Ultimate Demon @ $347 One Off Fee <–and again:-)

EdwinSoft’s Software Reliability

There is nothing more frustrating than a software program that crashes all the time. I typically have ArticleDemon and Bookmarking Demon running around the clock because I like to drip my submission (spread them out over a very long period, usually 3-6 weeks). To my recollection, I can only recall the Article Demon crashing once. That is pretty impressive if you think about it. I was a former user of another SEO software and one of the benefits it listed is it would pick up right where it left off when the software crashed!! I would rather not have the feature and instead just give me a reliable, stable software.

One other thing to point out. EdwinSoft is dedicated to continually improving their software and adding frequent enhancements. As of this writing here are the current versions for EdwinSoft’s products:

Why is this important? Well, there are some developers out there who never develop their link building software past the beta version. Not so with EdwinSoft. This is one reason why I had enough confidence to buy Ultimate Demon on the launch date.  There is another reason why this is important. Websites are always looking for ways to combat automated link building, but EdwinSoft also keeps evolving so your software does not become obsolete.  If you purchased a link building software and the developers do not invest any more time improving their product, you just wasted a bunch of money. Period.

Support Documentation, Manuals and Training Videos

The thing I hate most about some software developers are their crappy or non-existent user manuals.  Too many of them rely on a knowledgebase or forum for you, the paying customer, to sift through in hopes of finding an answer!  Every EdwinSoft product I have purchased has had ample user documentation and user videos. This is one reason I decided to purchase BookmarkingDemon after I purchased Article Demon.

Ultimate Demon’s User Manuals and Training Videos

Despite the fact that Ultimate Demon is very intuitive and an easy to use SEO software, EdwinSoft provides a comprehensive training with:

1. A 31 page Quick Start Guide
2. A 174 page 192 page User Manual
3. Training Videos
4. A 51 Page Secret Manual full of link building tips **Update 01/06/2012**

The quality of the training material is the best in the industry and really is representative of the EdwinSoft brand. As I mentioned before, Ultimate Demon is intuitive and easy to learn, but if you have a question, there is ample training for you. Keep in mind, the training and support documentation is every bit a part of the product as the software itself. You pay for it, insist it’s good.

As a beta tester, I did not have training documentation but was able to figure out the software in a matter of minutes. Literally.

Graphical User Interface Design

Function over form, but form is still very important. What do I mean by that? Well, if you’re going to buy a product, it has to do what it says it’s going to do – that is, it must function well. Secondly, the product must be visually appealing and intuitive to use. You’ve seen them and probably used them – ugly looking software with a crappy user interface. EdwinSoft has taken considerable care to make their product functions (reliably) and looks good. Look, anytime you’re looking at this type of software, you’re spending a lot of money. If you’re dropping decent coin on a product then insist it looks good and is easy to use.

Buy Ultimate Demon @ $47 per month <–Yep, my affiliate link

Buy Ultimate Demon @ $347 One Off Fee <–and again:-)

I’ve been running UD on several of my niche sites and there are 2 main differences that it’s made – 1] In the short term (2/3 days) It gives the sites a cracking boost in traffic (Up by between 400% and 2600%!), then it slowly settles down over the next week. And 2] In the medium term (2 months) A steady incline of around 50% increase in traffic EVERY week.

So there you have it, my Ultimate Demon Review – it gets my thumbs up, (And no, there’s no bonuses if you buy through my links – just a great product. Use it and your traffic will increase - plain and simple).

WordPress 3.3.2 is available now and is a security update for all previous versions.

Three external libraries included in WordPress received security updates:

• Plupload (version 1.5.4), which WordPress uses for uploading media.
• SWFUpload, which WordPress previously used for uploading media, and may still be in use by plugins.
• SWFObject, which WordPress previously used to embed Flash content, and may still be in use by plugins and themes.

Thanks to Neal Poole and Nathan Partlan for responsibly disclosing the bugs in Plupload and SWFUpload, and Szymon Gruszecki for a separate bug in SWFUpload.

WordPress 3.3.2 also addresses:

• Limited privilege escalation where a site administrator could deactivate network-wide plugins when running a WordPress network under particular circumstances, disclosed by Jon Cave of our WordPress core security team, and Adam Backstrom.
• Cross-site scripting vulnerability when making URLs clickable, by Jon Cave.
• Cross-site scripting vulnerabilities in redirects after posting comments in older browsers, and when filtering URLs. Thanks to Mauro Gentile for responsibly disclosing these issues to the security team.

These issues were fixed by the WordPress core security team. Five other bugs were also fixed in version 3.3.2. Consult the change log for more details.

Download WordPress 3.3.2 or update now from the Dashboard → Updates menu in your site’s admin area.

Hey Folks!

I’ve been using Popup Domination 2.0 for a while now on a few of my blogs and it has increased the opt-ins dramatically. Last week while updating these to WordPress 3.3 it caused me a bit of a problem and a bit of a headache with Version 2.0 taking the site down and coming up with the following error:

Fatal error: Call to undefined function is_rtl() in /public_html/wp-includes/general-template.php

Easy fix is to go into your FTP and rename the Plugin – However, you lose the plugin. Not Good.

Now, if you’ve already bought Pop up Domination 2.0 and you want to tweak the code to make it work with WP 3.3 read on… OR if you want to do what the developers advise you to do and buy the new retail version of Popup Domination 3.0 at full price, you can do that too – totally up to you:)

By the way, If you haven’t got this Plugin yet – Just buy it, it’s the fastest way to get subscribers on your list, it looks great and it integrates seamlessly with Aweber, Mailchimp, Get Response etc.

OK, Ready for a bit of code cracking? Let’s go.

You can either do this in your cPanel / FTP or even simpler through your WordPress dashboard – let me show you both ways:

In FTP / cPanel navigate to WP-Content > Plugins > Popup-Domination > popup-domination.php (this is the file we’re going to edit)

In Dashboard navigate to Dashboard > Plugins > Editor > Popup Domination (top right dropdown & select) > popup-domination.php (this is the file we’re going to edit)

OK, now were in there search for the following code:

wp_admin_css( 'theme-editor' );

and simply replace it with:

// wp_admin_css( 'theme-editor' );

Yep, that’s it, comment it out:) and hit “update” – you should find this works like a dream.

Have a great day folks!

Best WordPress Plugins

Hey Folks!  There’s really only 2 types of plugins for WordPress

1. Free and 2. Premium (I use both, read on and you’ll see why.)

Typically I prefer the premium themes and plugins purely because you know (99% of the time) that the quality, service and support is going to be there if you get stuck.

However, that said, there are a ton of great plugins out there in the WordPress marketplace that I use on a lot of mine and my clients blogs.

Here’s a few essential plug ins that i always install whenever I set up a new blog:

Free WordPress Plugins

Akismet: Best Anti Spam plugin on the market – Comes already installed on all WP blogs, simply configure it in 2 minutes

All In One SEO Pack: The original and still one of the best SEO plugins - Optimizes your WordPress blog for Search Engines (Search Engine Optimization).

Google XML Sitemaps: This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and Ask.com to better index your blog.

Sexy Bookmarks: Automatically adds the ability to share on pretty much all the Social Networks. (Currently this is not available at wordpress.org so HERE‘s the publisher’s direct link)

WooCommerce:  Transform your WordPress website into a thorough-bred online eCommerce store. Delivering enterprise-level quality & features whilst backed by a name you can trust. (This is crazy that this is free  - grab it now, seriously.)

Twitter Anywhere Plus: This plugin allows you to easily add Twitter @Anywhere to your blog, enabling the @Anywhere features: It’s what I use on the bottom of all my blog posts. Highly Recommended

Div Layer CSS Editor: BEST FREE PLUGIN OF 2012 – Make changes to your themes quickly and easily with this plugin interface. Edit any WordPress theme from the front of your website. Just click on a part of your website to edit it. Then save different versions of your themes as child themes. Amazing.

Premium WordPress Plugins

Backup Buddy: Without a doubt one of my Top 3 must have WP plugins – This backs up your site, migrates your site to a new host or folder & restores your WP blog quickly and easily. Absolutely Priceless!

Popup Domination 3.0: BEST PREMIUM PLUGIN OF 2012 – Increased my mailing list signups by over 600% – Now this one works out at around £45/£50 so it’s not for  everyone. But if you’re getting a bit of traffic and it’s not converting into sales, this will get those people on your list.