Since I already had a Linksys router working, it was easy to hook them up.

Unfortunately, I soon had problems.

“Dad, the internet is slow” became a frequently heard complaint. I tried to tweak the settings. I tried to change the channel it worked on. I rebooted.

But we still had marginal connections.

The problem soon became obvious.

I have a stone fireplace running diagonally between the router and the PC.

The router worked fine downstairs, and in other places in the house. But the orientation of the fireplace meant the signal had to travel through several feet of rock. And it did not do that so well.

I lived with this problem for over a year because hard wiring was way too difficult and I had no good alternatives for moving the router.

A Solution

I finally found a solution while browsing the web. I read about a technology called PowerLine networking and a product called Cisco-Linksys PLK300 PowerLine AV Ethernet Adapter Kit


This is cool. You have a transmitter which gets plugged into your router via ethernet cable, and into the wall via AC cord.

You have one or more receivers which plug into the wall where you need the connection. The receiver I bought has three ethernet ports into which I can plug whatever I need connected.

The system sends and receives internet signals through the AC power lines that are already in your house.

I was skeptical, but it works great!

Another cool feature is that you can have multiple receivers – and I do.

The kit comes with one receiver and I used that downstairs in my home entertainment system. Good thing it has four ethernet ports because I am using three of them already:

* Xbox
* BluRay DVD Player (Connects to Amazon video rentals online)
* Dish Network Satellite receiver (allows remote recording)

I bought a second receiver and upstairs I connected the kids’ PC and my wife’s Mac.

Both receivers work perfectly, and my kids’ PC upstairs now
downloads as fast as it should.

A word about installation:

If you are like me, networking can be intimidating.

When I read reviews of the powerline they all stressed how easy and automatic the set-up was.

And believe it or not, it was!

I just plugged it in, and it worked. I didn’t have to tweak anything. No setting, nothing. It installs security automatically.

Cisco-Linksys had done a great job with this technology and it solves a real problem that many people have. If you have trouble spots in your house where you need a good connection, give this a try.

I bought mine at Amazon
because of their return policy – but I’m glad I didn’t need it. This is a keeper.

It seems like every week I acquire another eBook about some business tactic. I go through them pretty fast now, but it seems there are always at least a few good takeaways in each of them.

Now, with many of the higher end marketing courses being delivered as videos, there’s even more to keep track of.

I found I would read an eBook or watch a video course, get excited by some of the things I learned, and then promptly forget about it – or even worse, I would remember the basics of a tactic, but forget exactly where I learned it.

I finally got organized with a free tool that helps me keep track of the important things I learn in all this educational material.

I use a tool called Evernote.

You can download a free version at:

http://www.evernote.com

(If you really love Evernote and start using it a lot, you can upgrade to a paid version, but most people won’t need that.)

Evernote is a free-form notes tool that lets you create and edit notes in the form of text, screen shots, audio notes and more. You can even twitter yourself a note.

A few things make Evernote really cool.

One is that your data is saved “in the cloud” which means it is on Evernote’s servers and not your own PC.

That means it is accessible from anywhere, and from many different devices.

There are Evernote apps for Windows, Mac, iPhone, Android and Blackberry. I can create and save a note on my PC, and view it later on my Android phone in another country!

Evernote has a strong search feature, and you can tag notes with keywords to help you easily find information later.

I find myself using Evernote for a lot of things besides marketing notes. For example, if I order a wine I really like when I’m at a restaurant, I can jot a quick note in my “Wines” note so I remember to buy a bottle when I’m at the wine store.

When I am watching a video, I can do a quick screen capture and store that part of the video directly into Evernote. This can be very helpful for “how to” videos.

You can also copy entire web sites, which is great for creating “swipe file” of ideas for later use.

What useful tools are you using?

Check out http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

SUPER converts to and from a huge assortment of audio and video files – more than anything I’ve seen including the paid apps.

To download, go all the way to the bottom of the page and look for the text link.

Beware that there are ads on the site that may look like the software you want – but the real software is a text link at the bottom of the page (as of this writing).

This is not a trial of crippled freeware version. It’s everything you need, and a valuable tool.

I was using TweetDeck for Twitter, but this new and free tool is more powerful and easier to use.

I really like the fact that it tracks how many clicks your tweets get.

Download TweetGlide For Free Here.

I received an email from Google telling me I had a Google Alert and needed to lot into my account to read it. But as you see in this video, it was not really Google. These criminals were trying to get me to supply them with my login and password so they could take over my Google AdWords or AdSense account. From there, they can change payment information, run ads on my budget supporting their products, etc. Beware – and always look for the real URL. In any email like this, if they tell you to log into your account, go directly to your browser and enter the URL of the account. Don’t click on the email unless you are 100% sure.

Based on the BlogRush widget (you can see an example of that on the right side of this page), TrafficJam provides a great way for bloggers and marketers to monitor popular blog posts in their specific niches.

It uses some unique technology to analyze millions of blog post title impressions, average click-rates, session times, and more to come up with it’s live ‘ranking’ system.

This is almost like a live headline testing lab. You see what blog headlines pull the most traffic.

You’ll discover new blogs, find resources to link to, and get ideas for content in your own blogs.

As TrafficJam gains popularity (and I think it will) getting a post to show up there can be worth huge traffic to your blog. After all, those are very specific and interested readers looking for posts in your niche.

To get ranked well, you need to be using the BlogRush network and you need to write good headlines that get clicked on by other BlogRush viewers. This is a very “natural” way to determine good blog posts.

Many eBooks, reports, white papers and user manuals are distributed in PDF for easy readability.

A new service lets you quickly and easily convert popular document formats including Word (.doc), Powerpoint (.ppt), Excel (.xls), JPG, GIF, Rich Text Format (.rtf), and TXT. Best of all, it’s free.

Simply attach your document on an email and send it to pdf @ koolwire.com and Koolwire will convert the document and email it back to you.

When I tried it, the PDF was sent back almost instantly.

If you need a quick and free way to create PDF reports or eBooks, give Koolwire a try.

I have to confess, I was late to the party. But now that I’ve started using this powerful mode of brainstorming and organization, I use it for every new project.

Here’s a look at a mindmap for a new product I’m working on:

Visualizing the different areas of a project, such as traffic, affiliates, content, launch, etc and having an easy way to organize my sometimes random thoughts is what makes this so useful.

Here’s a link to some free mind mapping software so you can give it a try.

Is your laptop backed up?

Laptops are the most vulnerable of computer equipment because they are mobile. If your entire business is on your laptop and you don’t have a bullet-proof backup strategy, you should be very nervous.

Personally, my desktop has a RAID system built in, so that is very safe. But I was worried about my laptop until I found a backup solution called Carbonite. It automatically backs up every file on your laptop to a server at their site, and it’s all encrypted. You set it and forget it. And best of all? $5/month. That’s it. I don’t know about you, but my data is worth $5 a month to me. Read more about Carbonite if you need to get your backups taken care of.