Harry Potter out in July

J. K. Rowling has announced on her official site that “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7),” the last and 7th installment in the Harry Potter series will be released on the 21st of July this year.

Rowling "admitted she felt an 'incredible sense of achievement' upon completion of the series, but couldn't help feeling despair at the same time." Source - andPOP.

The book is already on the best-seller lists at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

Related posts:
- Harry Potter news

Tags: Books Harry Potter Rowling

Video Spokesperson

Was going through this online registration form website, when I happened to chance upon their demo from page.

What caught my attention was a special feature whereby their video spokesperson, called 'Connie' pops up on the lower right corner of the site and gives a friendly welcome. She then proceeds to explain their service and then guide us to the next step of the registration process.

According to their tests, this feature, when added to the registration forms of their test group, increased registrations by 11%.

The presence of Connie definitely gives a more personalised and special feel to the site. She sounds quite friendly and her appearance is quite nice. I guess people naturally respond better to a person rather than an animated character. Of course, it could be a different story if the targeted visitors are children.

I would expect more people to sign up with this feature as compared to a normal one for the above reasons. I also like the fact that the image disappears after the introduction. Having it remain in the background might be annoying - like Microsoft's animated paper clips.

I see a lot of potential uses in other websites including online stores.Maybe there could be a 'virtual cashier' to help you with your checkout.

Definitely a Great idea. I give it the thumbs up.

Sponsored

Please revert to my old url

Some time back I had signed up for a free domain name ahoklah.co.nr, which redirected to my blog.

At that time it seemed like a very good idea. I had wanted this blog to be different and not just another blogspot blog but didn't want to move to a paid hosting with a domain name and all the hassle associated with it. I even signed comments with the new url. Some of my friends changed the url of links to my blog, to the new one.

A very bad idea, as I later found out. It simply diluted my link rankings.

I would like to request everyone who links to me using the url (http://ahoklah.co.nr) to revert back to the old one (http://ok-lah.blogspot.com).

Thanks.

Top 10 mobile phones

Leading online leader in one-stop comparison shopping for cell phones and wireless phone plans, Wirefly announces the Top 10 cell phones of 2006

Sponsored

The list of phones:
1. Cingular Wireless RAZR by Motorola (in various colors)

2. T-Mobile RAZR (in various colors)
3. Verizon Wireless RAZR (in various colors)
4. Cingular Sony Ericsson z520a/z525a video phones
5. T-Mobile Motorola v360
6. Verizon Wireless Motorola v276
7. Sprint Nextel Motorola i850
8. Sprint Nextel Motorola i710
9. Cingular Motorola v220
10. T-Mobile Samsung T309

This list was developed based on customer orders. As expected, the #1 on the list is the Motorola RAZR.

This phone is a winner because of it's stylish looks and unique colours, and amazing technical features. The fact that this phone had a name rather than a number may have something to do with it's success, but that's my opinion.

One thing strange about this list that I immediately noticed, is that there is not a single Nokia phone model on the list.

Melayu Boleh project update

It's one more day to go before the Wangcyber forum's "Melayu boleh SEO Challenge" ends and 18 days after I started my Melayu Boleh project.

It's been an interesting experience and I learnt a few new things. My blog post went up to 4th position in Google search results just 2 days after I wrote it. Then it disappeared altogether for a few days.

It was at 2nd position for several days before it came down. Right now, my post is:
- #7 in Google
- #5 in Yahoo
- #4 on Altavista
- On 7th results page on MSN

That's pretty good, don't you think so?

Tags: Melayu boleh Malay SEO

Connecting bloggers with sponsors

Blogs are the new marketing medium and Blog Sponsorships are on the rise. There are severla ways that bloggers are earning money through their blogs - text link placement, banner placement, product reviews, etc

BloggingSponsorships.com is a newly launched site that connects bloggers with sponsors, advertisers, and marketers. It has a database of blogs that are interested in receiving marketing and advertising offers. These sponsorship deals are negotiated privately and Bloggers stand to make up to a few thousands of dollars more a year. I guess, the higher your blog popularity, the higher you can demand.

This system also allows sponsors to obtain branding and advertising deals with blogs that fit their specific demographic/niche audience. Thus, it is a win-win situation.

The site also has affiliate incentives, giving out $2.50 - $12.50 for every sign up.

Sponsored

Vista is here

Windows Vista the new operating system from Windows hits store shelves today, after several delays. It replaces the Windows XP OS, which was released 5 years ago. Can't wait to get my hands on it.

The new system has hundreds of new features but I especially love the graphics called the Aero interface.

The requirements for the Home Basic version are:
- 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
- 512 MB of system memory
- 20 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space
- Support for DirectX 9 graphics and 32 MB of graphics memory
- DVD-ROM drive
- Audio Output
- Internet access .

It won't run on my old computer because it doesn't have enough memory. Maybe I can persuade my wife to upgrade her laptop OS.

Related link: Everything You Need to Know About Windows Vista

Tags: Microsoft Operating system Vista