Everyday Randomness

When Is Downloading A Website A Good Thing?

When is downloading an entire website a good thing? A lot of people might think downloading an entire website might be a bad thing to do, but I’m going to give you a few examples of why it can be a good thing! Here’s a list of ways I could use a program that can copy websites.
Conducting Research-

Back in college I would spend a lot of time on the computer researching for my term papers. Unfortunately I lose concentration a lot when I have to look at a computer screen for hours just to get the information I need. I would spend a lot of time printing out all the information I needed only to find I missed something important.

If I had the ability to download an entire website, I could have downloaded all the websites with the information I needed, printed out what I wanted, and sat down at my desk to read through my research. If I found that I had missed something that I needed, instead of having to search for the website again I could just access my own hard drive to print the missing information.

A Learning Tool-

As someone who spends a lot of time learning how to code websites in various forms, there are a lot of times that I get stuck. I might see something on a website that I like, but when I try to emulate it I can’t make my own coding work. I could spend hours searching for how to code it, or with the ability to download the entire website, I could see how the author wrote their code and use it as a tool to fix my own.

Reading Material-

I just mentioned to all of you that I will be heading to New Jersey in June. That’s going to be a seriously long and boring car ride. I’ll be taking my laptop along, but because I won’t have an internet connection until I find a place with Wi-Fi, I’ll be extremely bored. With the ability to download an entire website, I can download some of the top blogs that teach me how to become a better blogger and use my long car ride as a time to catch up on my reading. If I happen to come across a blog I haven’t read before that I like right before I leave, I can download the blog, read it while I’m on my trip, and be caught up with what’s going on by the time I get back!

How could you use a program like this to meet your needs? You can visit http://www.web-site-downloader.com/ to download a program that will help you do things just like this!

A New Way To Fundraise

I saw this site today that I decided is pretty neat. It’s called shoutback, and it’s a place where you can join together with others who support your same causes. If you’re part of a church group, school organization like booster club, PTA, Beta Club, Key Club, etc who needs to raise money for a function, Shoutback.com is also a great place to do that. It’s really easy to get started. You can sign up for a free account, then you either search for a group you would like to join, or you can create your own. Once you’ve got your group you can raise money by shopping, saving money, or even selling stuff on the website. They’ve got an auction section setup ready for you to sell your stuff.

As soon as I saw the site I thought about how our motorcycle group thought about raising money this year to help families of those who have lost their lives to motorcycle accidents. We’ve all lost friends, and we know how hard it can be for a family to lose a loved one, and it would be great if we could raise money to help. I think I’ll mention this to the group to see if they’re interested.

In the meantime, here’s a short little public service announcement I put together about Shoutback.com. It gave me a chance to try out the video function on my new camera!

Personal Paintings

Awhile back I got a custom print of one of our wedding photos that is just gorgeous, but I’ve always wanted a custom painting of hubby and I. I recently discovered it’s a lot easier and more affordable to get a custom painting that I ever thought. Paintyourlife.com has a ton of different styles and packages that I’ve decided would really work for me, and I’m thinking about ordering two paintings from them. First of all I would love to order a painting of hubby and I that’s an updated picture. The current canvas I have is a wedding photo. I would also like to order a painting of my sister and I to give my mom as a birthday gift since it’s coming up soon.

I love how Paint Your Life offers different types of mediums like oil paintings, charcoal drawings, watercolor portraits, pencil drawings, acrylic paintings, pastel, watercolor, and mosaic. The quality of the paintings is absolutely beautiful, too. Hubby really likes the charcoal motorcycle picture on the site, and it’s inspired him to want to buy a painting of his bike. After all we have some gorgeous shots of our trips to Deal’s Gap for him to choose from.

If you’ve got a few minutes stop by the site and check out some of the gorgeous paintings and portraits. It’s really easy to navigate around the site, and there is definitely some beauty there to admire.

Net Audio Ads The Most Annoying Advertising Yet

The internet is seriously becoming too much like TV. Why do I say that? Well a couple weeks ago I received an email inviting me to join Net Audio Ads. The email stated that I could add a new revenue income to my website by installing a simple code that would provide ads for my site.

As with any new advertising program I check out, I headed straight to the site to see what the program was all about, and I immediately decided against it. Using Net Audio Ads is like adding commercials to your website that your viewers must deal with in order to view your content. The ads are extremely annoying, and you can’t stop them. Gee I wonder how many readers would like that….not!

When you hit up the Net Audio Ads site via www.netaudioads.com you’re automatically redirected to the Voice2page.com site where an annoying video begins playing detailing the program. If you can get passed the annoying video you have the option to view demonstrations of the way the program works. The sample you are given is the Net Audio Ads (hosted at blogspot) blog. Go ahead and click here to sample how annoying these ads are.

Super annoying right? Now if you attempt to click on any of the archived articles, you’ll notice you have to listen to the ads all over again. Essentially the blog has become one big audio advertisement that’s even more annoying that someone posting their mp3 player in a sidebar. At least you can turn off music, but this stuff plays every time you click on one of the internal links!

I think the idea of this program is one that is totally going to tank. For those that choose to use Net Audio Ads you might want to consider your traffic. If you’re running a blog your readers will soon get very tired of the ads, and they won’t keep returning. Most of us don’t want to have to surf the internet with our volume off just to avoid annoying ads like these. Consider how many times you flip through the channels on your own TV just because you don’t want to watch the annoying commercial that just came on! You go elsewhere to avoid it, and so will your website traffic.