Category: Blog

GoDaddy 99 cent domains are back!

Godaddy cheap domain trickYes, GoDaddy 99 cent domains are back with this simple method and coupon code for December! It’s limited to 3 per account but does include existing GoDaddy account holders to purchase. I’ll show you below how to mix it up and get 6 domains for as low as $4.

At time of writing, 4USD = about 2.50GBP or 3.8AUD or 4.7 NZD or 3Euro

Start off by opening GoDaddy using this link (opens in a new window).

Sign up or login if you are already a customer.

First off, if you are from any country other than the US, set your primary currency to dollars. I’m outside the US but I keep it in this currency as it’s often where the better deals are.

Search for your 3 .com domains and add them to your basket.

Set all domains to 1 year duration using the dropdown menu.

Below each domain you see this:
YOURDOMAINNAME.INFO FREE with .COM or .CO^ – Add

Click the little ‘Add’ link for each one, this will add the free .info to your basket.

Verify your domains and that the corresponding .infos are all there, you should have 6 domains in total.

Now go to your Order Summary box on the right side of the page and add this special GoDaddy promotional coupon code:

LKSRTL99X

You should see that all 3 of your .coms have dropped to $0.99 (plus $0.18 tax) and that the .infos are completely free (with $0.18 sales tax). Something like this:

Godaddy 99 cent domain coupon code

 

Godaddy free info domain

 

At their current non-discounted prices (and GoDaddy are reasonable for their full-price domains) the basket would cost $82 for those 6 domains. Using this trick it comes down to a shade over $4.

That’s a $78 dollar saving, or 95% if you prefer!

Here’s what I have just ordered:

Godaddy 99 cent domains coupon deal

Yes that really is just over $4 for 6 domain names!!

 

Update: Working GoDaddy coupon codes for January 2013:

Enter code cjc295j1 for any domain at $2.95

Enter code gd3115c for any .info at $1.49

Enter code UNLOCKED for any .com at $1.17

Bookmark this page and check back for new codes before purchasing any domain!

 

Go straight to GoDaddy and register your domains now (link opens in new window).

Cheap freelance work on Friskk

Gigs for a fiverrIf you are looking for cheap freelance work then one site stands out above all others. Friskk has high quality services by freelancers from around the world. Starting from a ridiculously low $5 ( 3.17 GB Pounds at today’s exchange rates! ) Friskk users offer services in many different sectors.

Want a WordPress site cloning then moving to another server? $10

Want a new logo for your website, designed and built to a high standard? $15

See the PCRepairMan up top? He was designed and built using services found on Friskk.com.

Other cheap freelance work includes video intros, cheap website backlinks, zombie transformations to photos of your friends, singing birthday videos….sky’s the limit really.  Some of the imagination is incredible and for gift ideas this site is really top notch.  Each service offered is for a fixed price and these are called ‘gigs’. On completion of the gig you pay the service provider an agreed fee. You pay nothing to register, and no fees to the website. How cool is that?  If you want to sell a service then you would pay a small commission on the final sale price.  If you don’t see the service you need, then you can request a service using the instant suggestion box.

Cheap freelance work by professionals

Many of the users on Friskk are professionals in their field, looking to earn extra money with small projects. This means that they often finish the project in very good time and can deliver excellent results.

So have a look around, see what’s on offer and get something unique for less than the price of a Starbucks!    www.friskk.com

 

 

Server returned error “SSL error: self signed certificate”

So you’re getting a security error when picking up other email accounts in Gmail like this:

Server returned error “SSL error: self signed certificate”

What does this point to? Well it seems that on 12th December 2012, Google decided to update the way they fetch external emails within Gmail and now insist on the server having not just a self-signed certificate but a full-blown one. That’s OK, but it would have been nice to have been told about it.

Full certificates can cost an arm and a leg (lots of money!) and they are quite varied in features. I am a big fan however of the Rapid SSL Wildcard certificate from the SSL store which fits the bill and is very keenly priced. This currently has a huge $78 off and can be used on your whole domain, ideal if you have multiple domains or even just want to do Facebook timeline stuff later on (this requires SSL certification too). If your website has a shop on there, I would heartily recommend the Comodo Premium SSL Wildcard Certificate from the same guys which I have used on a few VPS and dedicated servers.

If you just want to get up and running quickly for free, you can simply drop any SSL external accounts to port 110 (POP) and port 25 (SMTP) which should get you live again. Send a few test emails to check things are running OK. Bear in mind that this is then transmitting emails insecurely so the domain will need the SSL certificate as soon as possible. While the Rapid Wildcard Certificate mentioned above is on offer it makes sense to lock things down sooner rather than later.

Please drop me a comment below if you get chance and this helped you out!

 

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Stuxnet worm sabotages industrial installations

The Stuxnet worm is the first known malicious software designed to destroy or sabotage factories, power plants, refineries or other industrial installations.

We are used to Trojans and viruses roaming the internet harming computers and causing financial damage, but Stuxnet really is in a league of its own.

The worm targets closed and highly secure industrial networks and after being introduced with a USB key, Stuxnet slips past four previously unknown vulnerabilities in the Windows operating system, so-called “zero day” vulnerabilities.

It is rare for malicious software to exploit even two of them.  Each one can take months for hackers to identify and more time to write software to exploit.  The worm then hunts for specific types of computers made by German company Siemens.

Having found its host, it lies dormant, waiting for a certain moment to override the computer’s control of industrial machinery, with potentially disastrous consequences. This new breed of malware could wreak the kind of damage only previously seen in Hollywood disaster films. Imagine a nuclear power station’s cooling system being overridden, for example.

Experts estimate developing the Stuxnet worm would have taken a highly specialised team between six months and a year.

Israeli cybersecurity strategist Gadi Evron says the worm is so advanced it is almost certainly state-sponsored.  “This would require a lot of resources on the level of a nation state. “Taking into account the intelligence required to attack a specific target, it would be virtually impossible that this is a lone attacker sitting at home.”

Less impressive, though, is the spread of the worm’s infection. “The attack managed to infect, over several months, something like 30,000 to 50,000 PCs in many facilities and corporations worldwide,” said Uri Rivner from internet security company RSA. Such a wide dissemination has helped expose the worm’s existence and helped efforts to neutralise it.

It also raises questions about the likely target for the worm. Iran says computers at its nuclear plant in Bushehr have been compromised by the worm but will not reveal the extent of the damage. Some figures suggest 60% of the Stuxnet infections are in Iran. That has led to a highly speculative finger of blame being pointed at Israel. Is the Jewish state trying to disrupt Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons programme? We will probably never know. Other unknowns also remain. Has the worm already achieved its goal, or is it lying in wait to carry out its sabotage? Is Iran the intended victim, are other countries at risk?

And, more worryingly, the worm is a trailblazer. Other hackers can learn from its pioneering methods to produce more sophisticated malware threatening other networks in the future.

Google goes SSL

Yesterday, Google announced they are making Google for signed in users SSL only. This means that if you are signed into Google’s system (eg Gmail) and go to Google.com, the page will default to https rather than the usual http. 

Free Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, InDesign, Acrobat, Audition, GoLive

adobe-photoshop-free-cs2Do you want a free licensed version of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, InDesign, Acrobat, Audition, GoLive, Acrobat, InCopy, or Elements? Well Adobe have done a very strange thing and put direct download links to the CS2 versions of this excellent software online WITH the activation serial key. Why would they do that I hear you ask? Well apparently Adobe have problems with their licensing server and older software is not validating correctly. To combat this and in a gesture of goodwill (or long-term customer baiting) they are making older versions like CS2 run, without requiring validation, on these keys.

Windows and Mac versions can be downloaded free from the Adobe website here

So why give away Adobe CS2 for free?

Supposedly, these licences are for existing customers, although the software is now coming up to 8 years old so it would be understandable if it was given away to tempt people to upgrade to later versions. Because of the high prices that Adobe has previously charged for this software, my guess is that it would possibly be perceived as putting a finger up to previous customers who bought this suite if they released it free of charge. Hence some mystery surrounds this ultra discreet release of serials and downloads.

I’m not sure all programs are Windows 7 or 8 compatible. There are Mac OSX downloads in there too, again I’m not sure what version of the OS it will go up to. What I do know is that the original minimum spec for CS2 was

  • Mac OS X v.10.2.8–v.10.3.8. PowerPC® G4 or G5 processor
  • Microsoft® Windows® 2000/Windows XP. Intel® Pentium® III or 4 processor

I’d recommend that you go for the complete CS2 download listed at the start as it contains all the individual software programs. If you manage to get a copy and install it, please let me and others know what operating system you’re running it on by dropping a quick comment below.

 

Clickbank dormant account charges

If you’re searching for clickbank dormant account charges then you probably found out already that something’s up. I looked in on my account to see a strange debiting going on in my Clickbank account every 2 weeks. Turns out, this is Clickbank’s dark secret….

 Clickbank dormant account charges explained

What they do is allow you to make one or more sales that puts your account into credit, then, after a period of ‘inactivity’ of 90 days, they start to deduct a ‘maintenance charge’ on your account. Worse still, this keeps going every billing period. And with Clickbank’s billing period set to every 2 weeks this means that your earnings plummet quickly and soon you’re back where you started on a zero balance. This really isn’t well explained and I had to search elsewhere to find out what was going on.

A ClickBank account can become dormant if there is a positive balance in the account but no earnings have been made for a 90-day period.

Furthermore, ClickBank say that they shall withhold payment of any account balanceto an affiliate  until at least 5 sales have been made with 5 or more different credit card numbers.  Also, the affiliate’s account must have received at least 2 different payment methods from the following list:

  • Visa
  • Mastercard
  • PayPal
  • European Direct Debit (ELV)

This is bad practice and considering how often most people check their affiliate accounts, it’s designed to make money by borderline fraudulent means.

This from Clickbank themselves:

Accounts with a positive balance but no earnings for an extended period of time are considered dormant. Dormant accounts are subject to a charge of $1 per pay period after 90 days of inactivity, $5 per pay period after 180 days of inactivity, and $50 per pay period after 365 days of inactivity.

$50, are you kidding me? We’re supposed to be working together!

Here’s a funny (yeah, hilarious) twist too, PayPal purchases do not count toward the minimum 5 different credit card numbers.  This is despite PayPal users having to have a different credit card to own different accounts. Imagine everyone pays by PayPal, that leaves you on the bi-weekly debit cycle that soon gobbles up all your earnings. For many affiliates, this means they’ll never get to make any money at all, despite generating sales. So you could earn $30, $300 or even $3000 and then watch it drip slowly away – and there’s nothing you can do to stop it except drive more sales their way.  This stinks of writing the rules to profit the most and it’s a very shady way to do business.

Clickbank charges workaround

So the only workaround I can see is to set the payout threshold to the minimum $10 before payment is sent.  Well this would work for US affiliates, but consider a UK affiliate that has to receive cheques (payout by PayPal is not an option). There is at least a £5 charge with most high-street banks to cash a foreign cheque, so this really eats in to a $10 (£6) cheque!  Did I mention too that there’s a $2.50 charge for each and every payout? That’s in the Clickbank small print somewhere and would bash the affiliate who cashes out on a $10 amount a whopping 25% of their earnings.

Unfortunately, unless you are a US affiliate you’ll need to be pretty sure you can make money REGULARLY enough to avoid the so-called ‘dormant account’ penalties. If you’re taking a break from promoting Clickbank then consider emptying the account out immediately.

Hope this helps a few people out there, please drop me a comment below if you’ve had similar experiences with Clickbank dormant account charges or if this article has helped you save a few pennies.

New version of AnyDVD released

There’s a new version of AnyDVD that has just been released. Here the list of fixes and improvements:

7.1.5.0 2013 02 11
– New (DVD): Support for new discs
– New (Blu-ray): Support for new discs
– Fix (Blu-ray): Incorrect region code detection with some discs
– Some minor fixes and improvements

The update is free for all registered customers, of course.
Just install the new version on top of your current version,
regardless which version you have installed:

Note: If your license has expired you must renew before you install the update
or else your product will stop working.

How to force a line break in WordPress

Wordpress force line break fixMany bloggers are complaining that they can’t see how to force a line break in WordPress.  It has been a problem right from its inception to the current iteration (3.4.1 as I write). The problem stems from the way that WordPress’s inbuilt editor – TinyMCE – handles spaces and returns. Adding break and paragraph tags ( for example <br> and <p> ) within the HTML editor doesn’t work as they are stripped out upon publishing. And as for combining this with images, they float in some pretty bizarre places making the formatting of some pages look simply dreadful.

So we could try to update TinyMCE.  There is a fix we can do, but for the sake of brevity I won’t post it because every time WordPress gets updated this will be overwritten. This makes the TinyMCE fix not suitable for most people who want a permanent solution.

So here is the best solution I have found, simple and effective. It involves going into the HTML tab of the visual editor (at the top of where you type your post content). Select this and position your cursor where you want the line break to occur.

Add <br class=”blank”> anywhere you want your line break to appear, this is usually after some plain text.

Update your post and view it, you should see the elusive WordPress line break has appeared. If you have the time, please drop me a comment below if it works for you.

 

Royal Wedding viruses hit users

With the royal wedding in full swing here inthe UK, many internet users are searching the latest news, gossip and videos for information.  Unfortunately, we have seen a lot of PCs passing through our repair departments riddled with spyware, viruses and Trojans caused by downloading software that comes from dubious sources.

Royal wedding hoax alerts

The malicious links we have found have so far been marked “William and Kate live interview”, “Royal Wedding called off”, “UK Royal Wedding free programme”, “Kate Middleton Wedding Dress virtual tour” and “Bomb alert spoils royal wedding plans”. There were even less tasteful ones such as “Kate Middleton injured in terrorist attack” and “Sniper attack on Prince William” which, when clicked, both took us to sites proclaiming to have exclusive video footage of the hoax events. Some even more graphic titles are best not repeated here….

 

The remedy for trouble-free royal wedding coverage online?

Don’t believe all you read and stick to major news sources such as bbc.co.uk or news.sky.com

Arm yourself with a fully featured internet security package that alerts you about possible threats from webpages and uses search filtering to avoid malicious webpages.  Don’t download programmes and guides unless from official sources.