Month: August 2015

The New iPod Touch from Apple is a great way of getting an iOS 8/9 experience without having to pay the hefty price of the iPhone. However while cheaper than the iPhone it does come with a few drawbacks, one of which is that it cannot be used to make Phone calls or send text messages (by default). However, with today’s technologies, it’s pretty easy for even the most non-technical people to start making phone calls from their new iPod.

Step #1 – Create a Google Account

If you’ve already got a Google account this can be skipped however the service will be using is owned by Google and requires a free Google account to start using it. You can register here.

Step #2 – Get Google Voice

Next in your browser while signed into your Google account visit voice.google.com and run through the basic setup process.

 Google Voice Setup:

1. Choose I want a New Number from the Initial Setup or if you prefer you can use your current number.
2. Add any of your current phones as a Forwarding phone. (What Phone You Choose doesn’t matter for this tutorial)
3. Enter Your Zipcode, or a Keyword to search for available numbers to choose from, then a list should appear and you can pick a number that you like.

Step #3 – Edit Basic Settings (Optional)

Once you set up your Google Voice account and select your number you can change specific settings such as your voicemail and pins by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right corner of the user interface and selecting settings.

Step #4 – Install Google Voice App

Next, you just have to install the Google Voice App on your iPod and connect it to your Google Account. Once you complete the Application setup your ready to send and receive text messages, and phone calls from your iPod for free. The number that you give to people to call you is the same number you choose when you set up Google Voice. If you forgot your number then you can find it easily by logging into Google Voice and finding the listed phone number in the left column.

1. Gigapros Web Hosting

While Gigapros do have Shared and VPS hosting, where they really shine is in their Dedicated Servers. They have a very different way of operating that differentiates them for many other web-hosts and puts them as number one on this list. The main one being how they allow you to pick exactly the specs you need for your server, including RAM, CPU, and any Operating System from CentOS to Windows. On top of that, you can add, some extremely competitive pricing such as a 64 GB of RAM, and 3.8 GHz Processor server coming in at just 119 USD a month.

2. BlueHost

I like to think of Bluehost as the Apple of the web hosting world. While they do shine in some areas the main that I find really unique are support and simplicity. To address the first one, in all the times I’ve ever had an Issue with any of my Bluehost servers I never had to wait for more than 5 minutes before getting into their real-time chat with someone who can actually help me, instead of some low-level salesperson. The simplicity part is not necessarily as big of a deal with the Pro web-designers and Entrepreneurs as with the newbies, but its always nice to have everything you need available in one place (such as Domains, Hosting, etc.). Another quick side note is that for some reason I’ve never had to wait more than 5 minutes for a domain I purchased through Bluehost to propagate for their servers.

3. DreamHost

I’ve always had mixed feelings about Dreamhost based on my first experiences with them, however as of the time I’m writing this review I’m glad to say that they’ve really become one of the more competitive web-hosts. While they really don’t offer any of the simplicity of Bluehost or the low prices of Gigapros if you’re looking for a good mix between Price, Support, and Reliability then Dreamhost is defiantly a good candidate to look into.

4. HostGator

HostGator is another company similar to BlueHost as in they put customer satisfaction, and support before anything else. While neither their VPS or Dedicated servers give you as much bang for your buck as Gigapros, they still offer very powerful Dedicated servers. While you shouldn’t expect to go starting your own social network on HostGator, you can certainly get some really large WordPress or other basic CMS sites going. HostGator also similar to Gigapros offers both Linux and Windows server hosting.

5. GoDaddy

I’d be amiss not to at least talk about GoDaddy in this list considering they are probably the most popular web hosting company. Although to be Frank nearly every experience I’ve had with actually hosting with GoDaddy has been just terrible, and I can’t recommend you buy anything but Domain Names from them.

So you’re doing good for yourself and making decent earnings off AdSense. But then one day you get that email in your inbox with the subject “AdSense Account Disabled” and everything changes. You suddenly realize that any other respectable Ad Networks either have low CPM or are just pure scams. So here I’ve compiled a list of all the other Advertising Networks I tried before I got my AdSense Account back.

8. Amazon Associates

While I am aware that Amazon Associates is technically an affiliate network I wanted to include it on this list simply because it’s a great source of extra revenue if you’ve got a site with a heavy and loyal following or a high conversion rate. It pays out similar to any other Affiliate program (based on sales) however since Amazon has such a large variety of products its easier to find relevant products than with other affiliate sites.

7. Chitika

Chitika pays via PayPal and allows you to customize your ads to better suit your websites like AdSense. The Downside to Chitika is its search-driven meaning the ads shown, are based on what Search Terms were used to get to your site not the keywords on your site.

6. InfoLinks

This is ad network creates blue underlined words like hyperlinks in your content automatically, and only shows ads when the links are hovered over by the user. Currently, InfoLinks doesn’t support any type of banner ads however they do have lower requirements so if your site is just starting up it might be worth a try.

5. ProjectWonderful

Despite having a rather strange name ProjectWonderful has a very unique model based on advertisers renting time on your site. The best part being that the system works on a bidding system so you usually end up making more money than you would with CPM or PPC Ads.

4. BuySellAds

Similar to ProjectWonderful, BuySellAds allows advertisers to pay for Ad space on your websites based on how much they are willing to pay or how much your minimum advertising cost is.

3. Advertising.com

Advertising.com is AOL’s solution to advertising (yes AOL) and has become a very large and respectable ad network online, although they do have rather high requirements compared to some of the others listed above.

2. Tribal Fusion

This Ad Network is by far the king of the CPM Networks and requires about 500,000 Impressions per month. Although it has a high need it pays off well with some of the highest CPM Rates on the internet, even when compared to AdSense.

1. Media.net

Media.net is part of the Yahoo | Bing Ad Network, and so is basically Microsoft’s equivalent of AdSense. While the exact requirements are unknown its very difficult to get invited into this ad network is so far we’ve only seen sites with millions of monthly users using.

Bad Eggs

During my time looking for Google Adsense alternatives, I also found a few spammy/scam Advertising networks that look legit but will end up not paying you or showing fewer clicks/impressions then your ads actually get.

RevenueHits

While this site would convince anyone that it’s a legit ad-network I found that all of there ads were spammy download buttons, and sometimes opened up popups or tried to download malicious software to the visitor’s computer. I have also heard stories of people getting their entire sites blacklisted from Google as being malicious because of RevenueHits Ads.

AdHexa

While Adhexa will indeed pay you and has better quality ads then RevenueHits they often seem to only count a fraction of the impressions your actually getting which may simply be a software glitch on their servers but still stay away until they become more reputable.