The significant challenges that we face today cannot be resolved by the same level of thinking that created them.

Hi there and welcome to our new readers. I think you are really going to enjoy receiving your ezine this way. It beats the heck out of email, doesn't it?

I had 13,977 attempts to gain entry into my Inbox this week and only 357 were legitimate messages. The previous week there were 12,965 attempts with 371 messages being legitimate. I'm seeing more false headers, phoney addresses and non-existent acccounts.

It will be interesting to see whether the new restrictions for pornographic content will make a difference. To be honest, I'm totally fed up with my Inbox being bombarded with everything from increasing body parts, pills for just about everything, debt reduction, mortgage rates, remote-controlled cars - even confirming blind dates. Where do they get this stuff?

If you want to share the Home4Success channel with your friends, just send them to http://quikonnex.com/channel/page/home4success. At the top of the page, you'll see a navigation bar - just click on 'Get QuikView'. That will take you to the page where you can 'Install QuikView' with your choice of browser.

I received a call from my ISP a couple of weeks ago. While we were talking, I asked him what he would suggest or recommend to help people keep the spam down. He said he had just fixed a couple of computers for friends because they got hit with a virus and he installed Thunderbird on their computers. That's the mail program from Mozilla. You can take a look at it here: Thunderbird. You can mark items as 'junk' and 'train' the program to interpret what you want and don't want. You might find it helpful.

I also use the Firebird browser which is also from the Mozilla group. You can virtually create your own browser - make it work the way you want it to by adding Extensions to it. Here's the link: Firebird. This is a terrific browser and it's not full of the gaping security holes you see in IE. One of the best features of Firebird is that you can use tabbed browsing which is a real plus when working on several things at once.

Today's Feature Article, Everybody's Talking About RSS, comes to us from Merle's World. This article is full of resources to help you find other channels (feeds), create your own feed and more. More publishers every day are looking for a viable alternative to email delivery. If you are serious about your business, you should be taking a serious look at rss to present your ezine.

Today's Special is Hold On to Your Dreams, and Never Let Them Go by Douglas Pagels.

Have a great day and keep on smiling.

Lois M. Jeary
Publisher, KIT and the Home4Success Channel
Contact Me Directly

Subscribe to KIT Subscribe Here

An Effective Alternative to eMail

Everybody's Talking About RSS
By http://MCPromotionsPress.com

No matter if you call it "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary," RSS is definitely all the rage right now online. With email filtering, IP blocking and the newest "Can Spam Act," everyone's scampering for a better way to get their messages across to their subscribers.

With RSS, the customers don't have to come to your website or open their inboxes to get your latest news and updates. Once they subscribe to your "feed," the news comes to them automatically. But wait; I'm getting ahead of myself here. Let's get back to the basics.

RSS is an XML based format that originated with Netscape. To use RSS, you must first create what's called a "feed." This is basically a file which you upload to your server. RSS feeds end with .rss rdf or .xml extensions and can be created by hand. An RSS file needs to include the headlines, links, and summaries of the content you want to distribute.

Once a feed has been created, other computers can subscribe to your "channel" and read your updates using what's called an "Aggregator" or "news reader."

Most feeds consist of a link with a short summary to click on to read the entire article. To let people know your site offers an RSS feed, you place an orange XML icon on your site linked to the url of your feed. You'll also want to list your feed with various RSS search engines that exist just for the purpose of collecting a database of feeds.

So what kinds of things can you turn into feeds? I thought you'd never ask. Any area of your site that changes on a regular basis is a good candidate. Things like newsletters, news announcements, site updates, anything that you update regularly.

If you have no idea how to create a feed, this site will do it for you: http://MyRSS.com .

Just type in the HTML page you wish to make a feed from and it converts it to RSS for you automatically.

Another great tool that will create a RSS feed for you is http://feedster.com/builder.php?next=cfintro. This works especially well if you need a feed of your third party hosted Blog, for example Blogger.

There's also a script that will convert any HTML doc into RSS -- Go to http://kalsey.com/tools/blogfeed/. If you'd like to validate your feed, you can do so at http://feedvalidator.org.

A News Reader is simply a software program that brings what's new straight to you in an organized, easy to read format.

Let's take a look at some of your options when it comes to readers and what's available to you.

1) RSSReader:
http://RssReader.com

Free; it collects news in the background and warns you with a popup in your system tray when there's new information available.

2) Ampheta Desk:
http://AmphetaDesk.com

Free, cross platform aggregator.

3) WildGrape:
http://WildGrape.net

For Windows; reads headlines from thousands of sources. Free.

4) Sharp Reader:
http://SharpReader.net

Free reader for the .Net Framework created by Luke Hutteman

5) Newz Crawler:
http://NewzCrawler.com

Web News Reader and browser. There's a two week free trial. You can purchase it for only $24.95.

6) Feed Demon:
http://FeedDemon.com

Download a free trial or purchase for only $29. Written by Nick Bradbury, creator of Top Style and Hoesite. Feed Demon is loaded with great features.

7) Feed Reader:
http://FeedReader.com

Freeware; Windows app that supports all RSS feeds and formats.

8) Blog Lines:
http://Bloglines.com

A web based Blog and newsfeed reader. No software to install to read your feeds; just visit the site and log into your account.

9) Awasu:
http://Awasu.com

Free Windows news reader that integrates with Internet Explorer.

10) Feed Readers:
http://FeedReaders.com

Lockergnome's offering in the news reader field. Seven day free trial. Two versions available: pro or standard with pricing ranging from $5.00 to $15.00.

If these options aren't enough, you'll want to check out the full list of readers over at http://www.lights.com/weblogs/rss.html If you'd like to have feeds sent directly to your inbox instead of downloading a reader, check out http://rss.blogstreet.com/asp-rssbin/auth_rss.

Once you download a reader you need feeds to subscribe to. Check out http://Syndic8.com for thousands of choices.

So now that you understand the technology, what are the advantages and disadvantages of RSS? Here's a big one: your subscribers don't have to give up their email addresses, which is great for those with privacy concerns. RSS puts control of subscriptions directly in the hands of your users. When they wish to unsubscribe they just delete the feed from their reader. It also reduces the risk of Spam accusations. If you're an ezine publisher and you don't have to worry about getting your messages past all of the filters in place by users and ISP's.

The disadvantages are that you cannot include personalization, and you have no way of knowing how many people are subscribing to your feed. Also, at this time, RSS may seem a bit complicated to the novice user and it has not become widely adopted by Web users.

If you haven't looked into RSS, now's the time to consider this technology as another avenue for reaching out to your website visitors, and keeping them informed.

Merle http://www.EzineAdAuction.com "Where some of the BEST Deals in Ezine Advertising are Made" Buy & Sell Ezine Ads in a live auction setting! Publishers sell off your excess inventory and Buyers pick up some Fantastic bargains. Free E-book on how to write "glowing" ezine ads.....Download Now at http://www.ezineadauction.com/ebooks/greatezineads.pdf

If you're tired of reading reams of pages in ebooks then something I stumbled across might help you, by a guy you've probably heard of named Marlon Sanders. He's very well known on the net.

What it is, is a Marketing Dashboard. The concept is you point, click and follow the steps. So it's literally "point and click marketing".

The Marketing Dashboard is divided into 6 steps, with 6 steps each, which makes it a 6 week program with actions you take -- 6 days per week.

The best thing is to see a screen capture of the Marketing Dashboard, and you'll instantly understand how it will help you.

Click here for a picture and to read more:

Marketing Dashboard

The man who does things makes many mistakes, but he never makes the biggest mistake of all – "doing nothing."
- Benjamin Franklin

The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity.
- Ayn Rand

Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared.
- Eddie Rickenbacker

Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there.
- Josh Billings

Hold On to Your Dreams, and Never Let Them Go
by Douglas Pagels

Show the rest of the world how wonderful you are! Give circumstances a chance, and give others the benefit of the doubt. Wish on a star that shines in your sky. Take on your problems one by one and work things out. Rely on all the strength you have inside. Let loose of the sparkle and spirit that you sometimes try to hide. Stay in touch with those who touch your life with love. Look on the bright side and don't let adversity keep you from winning. Be yourself, because you are filled with special qualities that have brought you this far, and that will always see you through. Keep your spirits up. Make your heart happy, and let it reflect on everything you do!

From time to time, we all download software from the web. Depending on the mood of your computer at the time, it may stick the download in some obscure place.

You are given the option of selecting where the file goes however, and I recommend you choose a specific place for all downloads.

I use a folder called (surprisingly) “downloads” – that’s nice and original huh? You can call it anything you wish, as long as you are consistent and put everything in the same folder. Then, if your program ever develops a problem, you can simply reinstall it.

Whenever I download a new “set-up” file, I burn a CD with the contents of that entire folder. Last night, a friend had her entire hard drive wiped out by a virus – no, I don’t know which one.

We reformatted her hard drive and reinstalled the operating system. We had the install CDs for software that she had purchased, so that was no problem. She did not however back up the programs she had downloaded. If she had copied those to a CD, it would have been a simple matter to reinstall those as well.

I talked to her this morning and she was still searching the web trying to find the programs she had downloaded. Fortunately, once she does find them it won’t be a problem to re-install them, as she did take my advice on one thing. She had a “hard copy” record of all her registration keys and passwords received from the supplier of the software that she had downloaded.

Forewarned is forearmed.

Courtesy of Bob Osgoodby - Internet Tip of the Day
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