Which internet browser should you use in general and for internet marketing in particular? Using the best browser available can make a difference in productivity.
Chrome versus Firefox-the Browser Wars
Until not so long ago most people involved in internet marketing in one form or another, including those learning it, were predominantly using the Firefox browser.
It was heavily recommended in different internet gurus courses and it was an undisputed winner.
It worked very well and had a large number of useful plug ins available for it.
When the Chrome came on the scene it seemed like most people didn’t pay that much attention to it at first. I certainly didn’t pay too much attention even though I downloaded and installed it in order to have an idea of what it was like.
But I continued using Firefox most of the time and exclusively for posting new posts on my blog.
Then one day when I was writing a blog post and adding videos to it something strange and weird happened. Without me doing anything to cause it the browser bar from the top of Firefox appeared inside of my new blog post and I couldn’t get rid of it without deleting the whole post. I tried several times to do everything else but the bar kept on reappearing.
So finally I tried using the Chrome browser, for the first time, to write a post on my blog and it went smoothly. No unwanted bar appeared and my trust in Chrome started growing just as my trust in Firefox was shaken.
As many of you may know a few weeks ago the Google Bar stopped working on Firefox browser because Google won’t support it anymore there.
It looks like a browser war to me. It may or may not be but the fact is that Firefox’s appeal will suffer because of it.
If I were a lone internet marketer who does no live networking I’d be crushed by events like this.
How Live Internet Marketing Networking Helps
Luckily, doing a lot of live internet marketing networking with local bloggers and marketers I’m able to handle things much better.
Another good post to read is Internet Marketing Event Networking that even includes a short interview I did with one of the best known and most successful internet marketers in the UK, Lee McIntyre.
Choosing the Best Internet Marketing Tools is Easier When Discussed Live
As you will see in the video below, it helps to be able to discuss things with fellow marketers. Choosing a browser, for example, is easier when you talk to others and hear what their experience with different browsers is.
Since that discussion shown in the video above, Firefox 4 is no longer the newest version. The browser is already several versions up at Firefox 7. Update January 11, 2012: Today I updated to Firefox 9.0.1 after strong and repeated urging from them. As usual something is not working as well as it did in the previous version, in my case it was Firefox 8 (one version up from when I first wrote this post). With the newest version, Firefox 9.0.1 the icons in my bookmarks are not showing. Basic stuff. It makes me wonder why they don’t check things are working before pushing it down people’s throats. Update February 12, 2012: I updated to Firefox 10.0.1. The bookmarks icons now show again.
Update March 09, 2012: I have found a flaw or a bug with Chrome for Mac (I don’t use one for Windows), Firefox for Windows and all major browsers for both systems with the exception of Firefox for Mac. What’s the flaw? When you go to YouTube, the new design that everyone started to be changed to as of March 07, 2012 and click on the Most Popular Videos tab instead of seeing the page with most popular videos you will still see the videos page as before except that the number of uploaded videos will be 37. This number 37 shows on every channel regardless of how many videos they uploaded. I have 352 uploaded videos right now for example. The only browser that works when you click on the Most Popular Videos tab is Firefox for Mac. If you use Chrome for Windows please let me know if it works or not. This may not be just a browser problem but since Firefox for Mac works it is at least partly a Chrome for Mac browser imperfection. Other browsers have the same issue. I wonder how long it will take for YouTube and Google to fix the problem. I did send them a bug report early morning March 08, 2012.
Update March 15, 2012: YouTube and Google have fixed the flaw or bug described in March 09 update above. It’s fixed not only for Chrome but for the other browsers as well. It took them a week. Good job.
The above updates just show that no browser is 100 % perfect. A browser may be perfect temporarily until the next issue with it comes up.
Changing versions so frequently is one of the things that I personally don’t like about Firefox. Sometimes the plug ins stop working when you install the newest version.
And when you happen to have an older computer that doesn’t support the newer Firefox version they keep on bugging you to install it anyway for months or even years.
You may be interested to know that John Chow for example doesn’t use Firefox browser at all anymore.
How about you?
What is your favorite browser, is it Firefox or Chrome? Is there a browser other than the two mentioned that you prefer?
Please comment on these things in the comments section and then tweet and bookmark this post to engage others.
How are you doing with social media like Facebook and Google+ ?
Would you like to get more comments and build email list? If you even hesitated in answering this question then I guess you are a complete newcomer to the internet marketing and blogging world.
But for the majority of people reading this, you have been wanting to get more comments and build your email list for as long as you’ve been a blogger and internet marketer trying to make money online.
I won’t link to any of my previous posts now but I invite you to get my free list building ebook. You can find the category with links to my posts on email list building in the sidebar to the right.
Recently a nifty tool has made it’s appearance which may revolutionize the way commenting is done and viewed. It will at least encourage it while helping you to build your email list.
What Is the Highlighter for WordPress?
This handy internet marketing and blogging tool is actually a WordPress plugin.
The best part about it is that it’s absolutely free, gratis, costing absolutely nada.
So relax completely. This is one tool that you can get and try without having to worry about the cost.
I may not be the first person writing about it but I have tried it out when commenting on some of the relatively few blogs that have installed it (about 1500 downloads) so far.
I have also installed it on this blog. To make sure it’s still here look at the left top edge of this page You should see as tag with “Highlighter” written on it.
If you are on the home page it won’t show. You must be viewing a single blog post in order to see it.
This is very important because after I installed it I couldn’t see it. So do click on the headline of any post if you are on the home page that shows more than one post and you’ll see the tag.
It’s still a “Beta version” and some minor bugs are being worked out. The tool is called after what is also does – it highlights – the Highlighter for WordPress.
If you highlight a portion of the text in this post, you can then comment on it right away.
You can also point to an already highlighted portion of the text like this one (again, make sure you have clicked on the headline of this post first in case you are on the home page) and read the comments of previous visitors and respond to their comment or just add your own.
Using this tool on this blog or any blog that has it installed is the best way to see how it works and to determine if you’d like to try it on your own blog.
It’s very important to know that you can highlight only a limited portion of text.
It makes sense because otherwise the whole page would be soon highlighted and yellow.
So what is the limit of the length of text you can highlight?
You can only highlight about 100 letters and spaces or about one and a half lines of text.
This fact is not mentioned anywhere as far as I know but this is what my readers and I have discovered.
I must admit that I was a bit skeptical when I first found out about the release of the Highlighter for Word Press.
Advantages and Possible Drawbacks of Highlighter Plugin
One of the concerns I had was the disadvantage that most plugins bring which is slowing down of the blog and increasing the time it loads.
I have found in comments on for example John Chow’s blog that those who installed the plugin, including John Chow himself, have not experienced any such problem.
I have been visiting John’s blog for a while now and while it does take a long time to load on occasion, it had been doing that way before he installed the Highlighter.
One of the commenters pointed out that this plugin loads after everything else on the blog has loaded and thus it has no bearing on the loading of the blog pages whatsoever.
The second concern I had was that the blog visitors would be distracted by the highlighted text after a lot of people would comment using the highlighting.
For the most part this is addressed by their ability to turn the highlighting off and reading the posts undisturbed by it if they so wish.
To turn off the highlighted text areas anyone can just click on the tab to the left upper edge of the page and check the box inside of the form that appears.
The third concern I had was about how the email list was being built with this plugin.
I always want to be sure that I only use double opt in when growing my email list.
This concern is also addressed. I have gone through the opt in process and it indeed is a double opt in. People have to confirm their subscription.
And if they don’t want to subscribe in the first place they can certainly choose that option too.
So everything is aboveboard and I think that after trying the Highlighter you’ll be pleased with it.
But the only way to make sure is for you is to give it a try
You can download the Highlighter plugin for WordPress anytime by clicking on the link and watch a video about it on that page too. Update July 22, 2018: The Highlighter plugin is no longer available. It was OK while it lasted but it didn’t get that massively popular in the end.
Since it’s still in the Beta version stages it’s possible that some problems will need to be ironed out.
I know of some that have already been solved and there is one thing that I hope will be changed. The “like” button covers the gravatar of the commenters.
This was not the case with the earlier versions and I know that the “like” button seems to have changed locations twice already.
There’s one more thing that I hope will be changed too but it’s a minor flaw that doesn’t affect functionality, so I won’t mention it now.
I hope that this was a helpful information for you. This is not a lip service post that you can find anywhere. Besides John Chow I have not actually seen a blog that posted about this topic that has the plugin installed and working and where you can test it by using it.
What to do now?
Comment in the comment forms below about what you think about the post, about the plug in and if you are going to install it on your blog.
Tweet and bookmark the post to share it with others.
To buy a Mac and use it for Windows 7 in addition to using it as the original Apple machine with Snow Leopard seems like a great idea. In fact if it really works it will give you all the advantages of both systems on one computer. When you see the commercials it is very tempting to just go ahead an buy a Mac and forget about the PC.
Watch this example of Windows on a Mac Apple Commercial:
But what does really happen when you do buy the Mac and want to use it with Windows 7 ?
Keep on reading and find out what I’ve learned after buying a brand new Mac.
What Really Happens With Windows 7 On A Mac
Doing a lot of research and talking with several representatives of the Apple brand including the Apple’s own store in Downtown Vancouver I was repeatedly told that there were no problems or issues with installing and running Windows 7 on the new Mac computers.
They run just like a PC they all said. Well, perhaps some models do and perhaps with some Windows, like Windows XP and Windows Vista.
In fact I have done as much research as possible and even included videos of how the Boot Camp enables a Mac to run Windows XP on my blog. I embedded the videos on my blog from You Tube since they were made by a guy who had Windows on his Mac.
I want you to know that I did everything imaginable I could to make sure that I wasn’t going to make a dumb uninformed decision. Here is a list of 3 stores I went to (in each store I talked to more than one sales representative or associate or whatever they call themselves at different times or in the case of the downtown store I talked to more than one person during the one visit):
The Apple store inside the Oakridge Mall in Vancouver, 4 visits, The Simply Computing store inside the Semiahmoo Mall in White Rock, 5 visits. These two stores are just sellers not Apple’s own stores. And finally, the Apple Store, yes the Apple’s own store inside the Pacific Mall in downtown Vancouver, 1 visit. That is a total of 10 store visits.
After being assured 10 times that there would be no problems whatsoever with using Windows 7 on any new Mac they were selling I decided to buy one.
The Black Screen Of Death On A Mac
Stuck In Windows 7 Installation Loop
I was really happy with my purchase and took the brand new Mac out of the box. I must say that the packaging they now have is superb. I also have to praise the people at the White Rock store because they were kind enough to install the extra memory which I bought for me and let me see that the computer was working with it.
After Taking the computer out of the box at home I was excited to see that I could make it run and get on the internet.
Everything seems to be working well in the Mac mode and so far I love it.
But I also need to be able to use the Windows 7 on it and that is a problem.
I purchased the Windows 7 Ultimate and also Windows Office and after thoroughly studying how to properly install the Windows using Boot Camp and printing out the instructions I proceeded with the installation following every step religiously.
Everything seemed to be going smoothly until I encountered the black screen. I let the computer be and went to bed hoping that in the morning I’d see the Windows 7 installed on my Mac.
That hope was frustrated and the black screen of death greeted me after I got up. Turning the computer off and on again got me to a screen with a headline saying “Windows Error Recovery”.
No matter which instructions on that screen I followed, and there are 3 safe modes and one saying “Start Windows Normally”, I always ended up at the same place in the loop: the black screen of death.
I decided to start the whole installation process over from the very beginning. I went to Boot Camp and erased the separation and everything related to Windows 7.
Starting everything over I made doubly sure I followed the instructions not only religiously but like a first class meticulous monk. After all I could have made some mistake, however small, the first time.
Well, I ended up staring at the black screen of death again on my shiny new Mac with no Windows 7 installed and a bit of disappointment and frustration creeping in.
I tried one more time with the black screen gaping at me again and the frustration and disappointment level rising.
I went to the PC store where I bought the Windows 7 and asked them to exchange it. They gave me another disk and also checked the one I brought on their computer to see if it was defective. It worked.
I did the installation process with another brand new disk with Windows 7 Ultimate on it. Black screen of death again resulted on the Mac. I repeated the process again like a fool doing the same thing and expecting a different result. I really wanted it to work. I spent a lot of time and money on this and all I was getting was a stupid black Mac computer screen of death.
When I purchased the Mac computer I also bought the extended warranty with Apple Care. Before I had the Windows 7 exchanged I described the installation problems to a person at Apple Care over the phone.
I was told that trying a different installation disk was a good idea and that they had no other suggestions other than that. Well, that idea with replacing the disk was mine. They didn’t help at all.
Apple Admits Problems With Installing Windows 7 On Their Macs
On Thursday, August 12, 2010 I called Apple Care again. When I called I was armed with an article which I found on Apple’s website. That article had been last edited on July 27, 2010. In it Apple admits that there are issues with installing Windows 7 on some models of Mac computers. In their post titled ominously Boot Camp: iMac Displays A Black Screen During Installation Of Windows 7 they point out to a solution which is quite complicated and which they do not perform for their customers. Update July 20, 2018: the link was no longer going to that, the text on their site is gone, so I removed the link.
Apple Care Adviser Denies Article Pertains To New Installations Of Windows 7
When I called Apple Care after reading the article about the black screen during installation of Windows 7 I was demanding that they give me a solution to the problem without me having to buy anything. I spent enough already. I was transferred to a personal adviser which they right then assigned to me.
The adviser told me that the article on Apple’s site is talking only about installing Windows upgrades and has nothing to do with new installations of Windows 7. I described to him exactly what installation problem I was having and he insisted that I do it again with him assisting me over the phone.
When the Windows 7 files loaded up he told me that now everything would be fine. I replied to him that everything he did with me so far was exactly what had happened before when I did it on my own and that I didn’t think that the result this time would be any different.
He seemed very sure that it would be different this time. Perhaps he believes to have some magical powers.
He gave me a number to call him if things go wrong and assured me that he would be there for at least another hour. I called less than 40 minutes later and he wasn’t answering the phone and didn’t reply to my voice message.
I called him the next day and heard a voice message that he’ll be back on Sunday. I left him another message just to make sure he gets back to me.
This is where things are right now.
UPDATE: August 16, 2010
Apple Care Adviser didn’t call me on Sunday, thus ignoring my 2 voice messages.
When I phoned the number he gave me he didn’t pick up the phone. The same thing happened on Monday, today.
I then called the regular Apple Care number and another adviser who called herself a Senior Adviser answered.
She proceeded with questioning me again as to where I got stuck in the Windows installation process. I told her and asked her why the previous adviser told me that the article on Apple’s site is not about new Windows 7 installation.
Apple Care Senior Adviser said that they are aware of what the article is about not denying it is the right article with a solution to the problem I’ve been having. Did they read the article after we talked on Thursday?
She couldn’t help me today because I don’t have a USB storage device or an SD card which are necessary to fix the problem.
So beware of anyone telling you that any new Mac will work with Windows 7 virtually out of the box after easy no problem installation in Boot Camp. It doesn’t.
Some Mac models have problems which Apple admits on their website in a hard to find article which talks about Mac Black Screen Installing Windows 7. Update July 20, 2018: That underlined text on this line was a link but since the content is no longer on their website I removed the link.
I found that the stores who sell Apple products are not well informed about installing Windows 7 on the machines they sell.
Perhaps they never do it because they charge $180 for it. How could anyone be willing to pay that much for what is supposed to be easy?
What they answer to your questions about it is not factual. It is what they believe, perhaps based on hearsay, experiences with older models, Apple’s commercials, but not on their own experience with installing Windows 7 on the new Macs.
Back to my trying to get help from Apple Care ordeal:
This new Apple Care Senior Adviser said she wouldn’t be able to help me till Thursday. Not that great. I expected her to say she could help as soon as I get the device.
I can’t stomach calling the general Apple Care number and be asked the same questions all over again by somebody else.
I’ll go and buy the device today.
Ouch, another $20 plus out of pocket in addition to the thousands already spent on the brand new Mac which was supposed to work like a charm. Not to mention the waste of time and gas.
I’ll keep you posted on whether things will work after that.
Update: August 17, 2010
Hurray, I was able to install Windows 7 on my new Mac without waiting for Apple Care help till Thursday.
It took buying a USB storage device and following the instructions given in the article on Apple’s site.
I’m quite sure that things will work fine now on my new Mac using Windows 7.
I want to add another word of praise for the Simply Computing store in White Rock whose manager Tony came forward and offered to waive the $180 installation charge and install the Windows 7 for me after I related to him the problems I had with getting any meaningful help from Apple Care before I talked to their Senior Adviser on Monday.
I sent Tony the link to the article on Apple’s site after talking to the guy at Apple Care who denied it had any bearing on new Windows 7 installations on my new Mac.
I’m glad I didn’t have to bother with having to take my computer back to the store.
If you read this far I admire your attention span.
I’m disappointed with Apple and how they lure people to purchase their products without making sure that they or their sellers inform the people about to buy them about any problems or issues, especially if they are asking specifically as I have done.
I’m disappointed with Apple Care, which is not free and in spite of that seemed ignorant about what problems there are with Apple products and how to fix them. I felt that I needed to educate them on where to find the solution to the Windows 7 installation problem.
They kept asking me the same questions instead getting to the root of the problem fast. They should have been able to help me right away.
Am I expecting too much when I insist that Apple speak the truth about their products and if there is a problem with them that they take care of their customers?
And I mean free care that doesn’t require their customers to spend any additional money and huge amount of time as I had to.
Have you encountered any problems with Apple products and Apple Care yourself ?
What do you think about the article on the Apple’s site ?
How could my first personal Apple Care Adviser tell me what he did?
Please leave me your comment and then bookmark and tweet the post for others to find it and express their views.
Why Consider Using Squeeze Plugin With Your Themes
Every amazingly successful blogger and internet marketer that I know of tells me “build your opt in list”. They say it directly to me when I meet them and ask them what is the most important thing to focus on. Some actually say “build your email list” but that is the same thing.
Of course I couldn’t have met all the hugely successful internet marketers and bloggers but I hear all of them talk or write about the importance of email list building at some point.
Luckily, most people are beginning to hear the message and realize they need to do something about it.
I’ve read a couple of survey results within the last 6 months that were trying to find out what people getting into the internet marketing game are interested in learning the most and what they need the most help with.
List building finished at the top every time.
This is not the first post about list building on my blog which an increasing number of people find by searching for list building blog.
You can read more about the subject of email list building in my previous posts.
One of them is How To Build Email List In Any Market . It also goes into why build your email list, double opt in versus single opt in and more as it introduces my list building ebook. I highly recommend that you read it.
You may not be in the internet marketing niche and could be blogging about any other subject. That’s cool, you are in the right place here. I have aimed at people like you in my post focused on all niches called Email List Building, Opt In List, Not Just For Internet Marketers.
And if you want to know what I thought about list building and the importance of it just as I was starting this blog you can read Build A List, Targeted Email Opt In List.
After reading the above posts and this post so far, I think that you’ll be more than ready to want to find out about a new tool suitable for anyone wanting to add subscribers to their list.
New Internet Marketing Tool, Squeeze Plugin, Will Help Grow Your Opt In List
Update July 20, 2018: The Squeeze Plugin no longer exists. It was great at it’s time but only a short time. The best tool for building squeeze pages and a lot more, which I partly describe in the second update note below, is ClickFunnels. You can learn how amazing ClickFunnels is by watching the webinar on ClickFunnels. Just click on the link with ClickFunnels in it.
Questions and answers about the Squeeze Plugin
1) How is using this plugin better than just getting an opt in form code from AWeber and pasting it to my blog?
Answer: Well a squeeze page implies that you are offering something to get people to op-into your list so having a video or an image will greatly increase opt in rate as apposed to just having the opt in area by itself.
2) Can the plug in do both simple opt in forms as well as the whole squeeze page template?
Answer: Yes it can do both.
3) How will this plugin save me time and make my blog and squeeze pages look better?
Answer: The plugin will integrate with all of your other themes/sites, so all you have to do is drop the widgets you want on your squeeze page and use Aweber’s form code and that is it.
4) Has the plug in been tested in the real world and what have been the results?
Answer: We based the design of the plugin off of the actual squeeze pages that we create for our own products and services.
This is all the information available about the Squeeze Plugin right now. (Please see August 03 update below).
I’m not sure if it’s enough for you to decide whether you want to get it or not. I have already ordered it and paid for it because it is another product from a company that I’ve had only good experience with.
I’m not suggesting that you go and buy the plug in yourself if you need more information about it.
August 03, 2010 Update: The Squeeze Plugin is now available
Update July 20,2018: The plugin is not available anymore and even the domain on which it was is being redirected to BlueHost. These days the best way to create squeeze pages and a lot more pages for the whole marketing funnel and even hosting your digital products is to get and use ClickFunnels. There’s a webinar you can watch right now showing you what ClickFunnels can do.
I hope that reading this post will encourage you to start building your email list if you haven’t done so yet and that it will encourage you to continue building your list with even more enthusiasm if you have.
Before you go to work on your opt in list I need you to leave your comment about what you’ve just read.
What did you like or didn’t like or both?
Which tool has been most valuable in your email list building and why do you think the Squeeze Plugin may or may not help you to grow your opt in list even more?
Once you’ve made your comment be sure to bookmark and tweet the post. You’ll want others to read the post and your comment and give their views.
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