Launching Your Book On-Line

One of the members of Writers of the Desert Rose Cafe is launching his book on-line through Celestial Promotions today.

• https://www.facebook.com/events/371866819589287/

• Love baseball? Love reading? This is a book you’ll be happy to celebrate the release of. Join us in this celebration with interactions, games, and prizes.

By signing in on this event, you have the chance to learn first hand how an Internet book promotion is done. Free learning! What an opportunity.

(It’s sad that I have house guests and may miss taking advantage of the event. Take notes for me, will you?)

Simple Ways to Protect Your Internet Privacy

Would you hang a sign in front of your house with your name, date of birth, social security number and private family information in large block letters for anyone driving by to read and record? No, unless you want a ton of trouble.

Sometimes those using modern communication devices like a smart phone, iPad or portable computing device hang information about themselves out there for the taking. Kashmir Hill of Forbes magazine offers tips to protect your privacy.

• Password protect all your devices. This keeps someone from casually reading your messages or documents. So many internet writers confess to reading other people’s messages when left alone with a friend’s device.
• Use Google Alert to find out what others are saying about you on-line. It takes 60 seconds to fill out the form. http://www.google.com/alerts
• Sign out when you finish on e-mail, bank sites, auction or retail sales sites or social media. This is especially important if you are using someone else’s device. Don’t leave the door open to your private information.
• Use cash to buy things. Data mining companies know about your on-line and credit card purchases and sell that information to others. Next thing you know, you are bombarded with ads from embarrassing vendors who bought your name from a list.
• Set your Facebook page to Friends Only. No need to share your private life with the world — or ID thieves.
• Clear your browser history and cookies routinely. Hackers love to snoop to see where you’ve been on-line.
• Use an IP masker to confuse those snooping on you. Check https://www.torproject.org/ for more information.

 

Primp Your Blog, A New Leaf

In an update on an old friend, Kira, the creator of Primp My Blog, has changed her website, suitably calling it “Her New Leaf.”

In her words:

While working on my blog’s redesign, it was a (lofty) goal of mine to do all of the design work myself. Considering I am a self-taught Photoshopper, have minimal HTML experience, and little to no CSS knowledge, this was a lot to take on. I found it really difficult to find the information I was looking for out there on the big, bad internet, and the information I did find was often too technical for me to understand or poorly translated to English. But I accomplished my goal, and I love my new blog, and in the true spirit of Her New Leaf, I learned a ton of new things in the process!

I’m excited to share my knowledge with you in a  feature called Primp My Blog. I hope to present the information I find all over the internet in an easy and readable way so that someone who is brand new to blogging can utilize it. Please let me know what you hope to learn, and I will do my best to learn it myself, then share here!

Go here to see for yourself. There are lots of tips and tools to help you make the most of your social media sites.

http://www.hernewleaf.com/primp-my-blog/

How To Use Facebook

This link leads to a tutorial for those who have never used Facebook. It is a step-by-step instruction guide to get you started.

http://www.timegoesby.net/weblog/2010/04/elder-geek-how-to-use-facebook.html