When he put together his Birthday Blowout, I was shocked by his generosity. After all, many of those products he was giving away free  are sold for excellent money every day!

When he decided to follow up with yet another mind-blowing offer, I knew he was nuts. For sure.

If you’ve not taken a look yet, go and see it now: Absolutely Nuts Offer :: ICGM
(I’ll wait…)

Back? Good.

Stunned, aren’t you? (grin)

I remember when he began putting it together, he had a fantastic package all put together and then he just… kept ADDING MORE. AND MORE.

AND MORE!

Sincerely, it’s almost ridiculous how much is included.

If you have ANY desire to make some serious cash in 2009 – scratch that… if you want to start making real income within the next 3 months, you HAVE to get this.

And for this price? Man, you’d have to be crazy NOT to take it and run!

The spaces are filling up, and I KNOW Tony would prefer that true Blakers were the ones who benefit, but if you snooze, you lose! There are only a total of 51 spots available…

Go right now and check out the sales page, see all he has included. You’ll be blown away, I promise!

Absolutely Nuts Offer :: ICGM

***I’ll let you in on a little secret…***

Tony and I have been business partners and very close friends for over a year, and he just spent two weeks with me here in Canada to put some projects together and pack this offer full of value. I can personally vouch for the fact that you will be completely astonished by everything you’ll get – including “unadvertised” stuff… he just never stops!!

Don’t waste a single moment more…

Make 2009 an explosive year for you and your business… Tony can truly help you do it.

Have a wonderful New Year!

Absolutely Nuts Offer :: ICGM

Tony Blake is truly nuts.

I should know. I spend all my time with him!! (LOL!)

Right now he is giving away 51 gifts to give you.. absolutely FREE…

You see, he’s celebrating his 51st birthday (late, I might add!) and decided to reward you with a whole pile of great gifts I know you’ll enjoy, learn, use and profit from… and these aren’t junk gifts either…

Unfortunately the birthday celebration almost didn’t happen! In fact, you should have gotten the gifts over 4 weeks ago, but life is often funny and things get in the way…

But not today!

Right now I want you to visit the following website. When you get there, you’ll find a video where Tony explains how you can get your hands on the 51 gifts he wants to give you…

Plus he’s also going to show you how you can continue to get weekly gifts from him all year round! He’s gone absolutely nuts putting this together for you… and my pain is your gain (trust me, I personally put a lot of work into this puppy!) and you’re going to like what he’s put together…

Okay, get ready to grab your gifts… here’s the link:

Tony Blake’s Absolutely Nuts Birthday Giveaway!

He’s never done anything like this before and may never do this again (trust me on this), so don’t miss out on his incredible giveaway…

Oh, and when you get your gifts you’ll also find out about something very rare that he’s doing designed to push you forward in your marketing career and make a big difference in 2009…

So, don’t delay… here’s the link again:

Tony Blake’s Absolutely Nuts Birthday Giveaway!

Grabbing these gifts is like robbing Ft. Knox… there’s tons of gold in what he’s put together for you…

I don’t know how long he’ll have the doors to this celebration open so I wouldn’t delay… I don’t want you to miss out…

Video squeeze pages (when done right) can be one of the most powerful, effective ways to build a list in a very short time.

Not sure what a “squeeze page” is? A squeeze page is another word for “landing page”, and applies to pages designed to collect a visitor’s name and email while providing something enticing in return.

Things like ebooks and ecourses have been popular squeeze page gift items, and to some extent they still work – depending on the perceived value of the item. I personally still use these types of offers on my niche squeeze pages all the time.

But the bar continues to rise when it comes to collecting names on squeeze pages. The constant assault of spam that hits everyone’s inboxes make people reluctant to sign up for anything online. As marketers continue to pile on the free stuff (especially in the internet marketing niche) to entice people to fill out their forms, we’re all faced with something referred to as “moving the free line.”

This refers to coming up with increasingly bigger and better, more valuable items to give away if you want your visitors to give up their email on a traditional squeeze page.

Video squeeze pages can actually capture visitor information without giving anything away for free!

A video squeeze page can play on your visitors’ natural curiosity. Pique their interest… and provide the solution they crave, which is revealed in part 2 of your video on the “other side” – without any additional “freebies” required!

Video squeeze pages do take a bit more work than the traditional squeeze pages we’re so familiar with. Fortunately, the tools to make videos are built right into modern computers.

Graphic designers have begun to include attractive video pages in standard sizes as a “must” in their template packages… including my own! You can see the latest offering here: Graphics With Impact 2008 Blowout Package

It has never been easier to put video on your websites!

Focus on the structure for your video, where the answer to your visitors’ compelling problem  is revealed in a second video, which is on a page visitors reach only after they’ve opted in to your list.

Leave your visitors eager to see what happens next and you’ll see a marked increase in your conversion rate, higher than you ever could by simply giving away an ebook.

If you’re paying a lot for your traffic and leads, you want to ensure that you’re getting the best conversion rates possible.

A good first impression is CRITICAL to branding you and your product and making your customers trust you enough to give you their money.

This incredible package covers every angle – and more!!

Graphics With Impact 2008 Blowout Package

Not only are you going to see the most original and wildly complete package you’ve likely ever seen, but you’ll also be the first to get a look at something truly brand-new… and I hope you take advantage of it!

Video is hot, but streaming video is even hotter. This package will put you head and shoulders above your competitors.

And with LIMITED NUMBERS AVAILABLE, you’ll dominate in your niche.

Read the whole thing… by the time you’re halfway through, your jaw will drop!

Graphics With Impact 2008 Blowout Package

Last year you might recall the overwhelming response from Internet Marketers all over the globe when the “Grinch Fund” was stolen from a local restaurant/pub… Well, the Fund is alive and well thanks to all of you. I wanted to express my gratitude for all of your donations last year, and the appreciation of all the staff and especially the children.
I just learned today that Global News has done a follow-up on the story, and I’ve added it here so that you can see it:

Thank you all for your wonderful support. It wouldn’t have been possible without you.

On November 11th Canadians all across the country will stop and pay tribute to the men and women killed in Canada’s wars and military operations. Some will remember friends and relatives long dead. Others – like yourselves perhaps – will pause in tribute to those in harm’s way even today.

For millions of Canadians the poppy has long been the flower of Remembrance. It is a reminder of the blood-red flower which grew in the fields where many Canadians died in a place called Flanders. It remains the flower of Remembrance today.

We must remember. If we do not, the sacrifice of those Canadian lives will be meaningless. They died for us, for their homes and families and friends, for a collection of traditions they cherished and a future they believed in; they died for Canada. The meaning of their sacrifice rests with our collective national consciousness; our future is their monument.

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe,
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch, be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Last Post (listen to the Last Post)

The Last Post is sounded at military funerals and commemorative services… to indicate that the soldier has completed his life’s work and has entered into his rest.

I just finished reading a post entitled “A Friend Asked Me To Warn You…” by Ken McArthur, a prominent marketer who is well-known for being an upstanding, nice guy throughout the internet marketing world.  You can read the post by clicking here.

I was sorely disappointed by this post for a number of reasons.

First, I dislike it intensely when a marketer uses misleading subject lines and headlines in order to deceive people into clicking a link. When they say that even bad publicity is good publicity, “they” are wrong. If this post had been selling something, I would have refused to purchase it based solely on the deception.

Second, I was truly disappointed by the content. The opening sentences had me believing that Ken was finally going to warn his followers and revoke his endorsement of a particularly unsavoury character. I’ve emailed him privately about the matter, and most experienced and connected marketers are aware of the person’s lack of integrity, but only through “back channels”.

Sadly, these top marketers continue to ignore the problem, insisting that it’s not for them to say anything… that the new marketers will learn on their own.

But at what expense?

Ken posted a second blog post: “Controversy Or Communication?” where he elaborated on the original post further. You can read it by clicking here. I posted a lengthy comment there as well.

What’s your opinion?

Are you selling your integrity to maintain your popularity with the “Big Boys”? Promoting questionable products and marketers regardless of their ethics or the value of their products? Letting your followers “find out for themselves” about unethical marketers instead of speaking up and providing true direction for them?

I’m interested in hearing your point of view.

I know you’ve heard about the “Maverick Business Insider” from Yanik Silver (one of the most respected marketers online), and if you’ve been eagerly awaiting the opening of the site, you’ll also know about his “fast action bonuses” which have been extended due to the launch delay…

Well today you have an opportunity to see what all the fuss is about from the straightest shooter you’ll ever meet – Tony Blake. He rarely endorses any product, yet this one has gotten him very excited.

Click here to see the video!

Tony Blake explains the entire package, and why it’s so exciting… and even went the extra mile to create a pile of amazing bonuses!

Don’t waste another second…

Go to MaverickInsider.com right now, and watch the video, see all the bonuses… (there is no opt-in to view it – Tony wants to make this a complete no-brainer…)

I’ve already got mine… and I would LOVE to hear what you think of this awesome package once you have yours!! Let me know what you think of it all in the comments below.

Here’s the link again: MaverickInsider.com

Enjoy!!

Rosalind Gardner is one of the few who I’ve followed when it comes to consistent sales in the affiliate marketing arena. I just saw this video, which is an awesome help to anyone who needs to bypass an ugly or badly written sales page that uses Clickbank:

Bypass Clickbank Sales Page

Important: An important point that wasn’t mentioned in the video is that this method does NOT override existing affiliate cookies. One way to make sure you get credit for sales generated this way would be to pop a page to either the first product or a relevant Clickbank product in the background when someone lands on your page.

This method will definitely come in handy for sites with poor landing pages that leak commissions – for example, sales pages that also have Adsense ads.

You can check out her blog at http://www.netprofitstoday.com/blog.

You ever know about something way ahead of everyone else, and the secret is just so big it has you bursting at the seams to tell?

(Click here to be the first to find out!)

It is fair to say that now, more than ever, is the greatest time to make money on the internet…(seriously!) and there’s nothing I love more that real, valuable, FREE stuff I can pass along to you!

Thing is, the “secret” I’m not allowed to tell you about yet will be VERY limited. I really wanted to give you the head’s up in case you don’t get my email in time.

So go ahead and click here to be one of the first to find out what the big secret is…

On July 4th, I wrote about “The Perceived Value Of Free”.

I discussed how in recent months, there had been a notable increase in marketers talking about “moving the free line”, and generally instructing new marketers to give away valuable content to build their lists, in order to create customers in the future.

On the surface, there seemed to be some value in this advice. After all, there are giveaways popping up daily, free reports everywhere… all with the intention of obtaining that all-important email address on a double opt-in form.

I decided to test this theory. (This is the simplified version)

I created a product for a niche I have been active in for some time. (Sorry, I am not going to reveal the niche; suffice it to say that it’s as competitive as the IM niche). The product I developed contained useful software, a detailed info product on pdf, an audio version of the info product and a video showing how to use the software along with the info product.

I created 1 other product of similar value and structure, and two reports with additional, related advice and tips.

I purchased two very similar domain names. I created two websites. One website gave away the product for free, just for opting in to my list.

The other was a basic sales page using similar language, but charged $67 for the product. Upon successful payment, the customer was directed to the download page which included an optin form for the same newsletter.

I employed the exact same marketing strategies to each site. I drove traffic, used PPC, posted in related forums, created articles – all the usual things.

Can you guess my results?

Both websites recieved approximately the same amount of traffic from my marketing efforts.

The website with the free product had an optin rate of around 40%.
The website selling the product had conversions of about 3%.

Of those who downloaded the free product, 20% unsubscribed immediately after recieving their download.
Of those who purchased the product, 80% opted in to the list.

The autoresponder series was loaded with 7 emails.

The first email (immediate) was a thank you for downloading the product, along with their download link in case they weren’t redirected after payment/signup. Almost no unsubscribes from either list.

The second email (two days later) was a repeat of the benefits of the product, and encouragement to take action with it. I also included a link to download one of the two reports I created as an additional bonus.
Again, there were no unsubscribes from either list.

The third email (three days later) was pure content, highly related to the product and included several valuable resources for more information. Oddly, this email triggered a further 20% unsubscribe rate from the “free” list, but zero from the “paid” list.

The fourth email (three days later) was again, pure, actionable content. And again, I lost about 10% of my “free” list.

The fifth email (three days later) gave away the second bonus report. This bonus report was a lead-in to the second product, and in fact had links inside taking them to the product sales page. I didn’t have any unsubscribes from this email, but I did receive traffic from the link in the report – a 20% click through from the “paid” list, which had a 5% conversion! There were zero clicks from the “free” list. (Those who purchased were moved to a new customer list.)

The sixth email (three days later) was again content, leaving off with a teaser at the end about how a specific problem talked about would be solved in the next email and to watch for it. This email lost about 10% of the “paid” list, and a whopping 40% of the “free” list.

The seventh and final email in my test (sent out two days later) was purely promotional, sending subscribers to the sales page for my second product. This product was priced at $47. I lost all but about 15% of my original “free” list, and I retained approximately 75% of my original “paid” list.

Further, I had almost no click throughs to the sales page from my “free” list and only two sales (less than 1% conversion), but from my “paid” list, 60% checked the site. Of those, 10% made the purchase!

My Conclusions

Free products – no matter how good – are perceived as “cheap” and of little value. Often people will download free items and never give them another thought. Those who part with actual cash to obtain a product will often go through it from front to back, usually as soon as they get it.

I also learned that when people have paid for (and liked) a product and are provided with relevant content and additional materials along the way, they are much more likely to purchase a second time. Between the original sale and subsequent emails, you have position yourself as a respected expert who provides real value.

It’s also notable that there was a marked difference in the email address quality between the two lists. The “free” list contained many aliases such as “giveaway@gmail.com” or other obvious throwaway accounts, many using free email services. The “paid” opt-in list was of a much higher quality, most using their own domains or their ISP address.

I’d love to hear your thoughts!!

The economic problems that so many are facing right now from the backlash of what’s happening on Wall Street does not mean that is what’s happening in online business. In fact, ecommerce and online revenues are expected to rise steadily over the next several years in spite of everything going on in the offline business world.

People will still buy.

If you don’t believe this, turn off the TV and avoid the doom and gloom on the news for a few days. Get on the computer and do some research.

The media makes money by delivering bad news. I spent the bulk of my offline career in the newspaper business, and I know this to be true. People eat it up, and the media? They love it. It draws more attention than a bad accident on the side of the road. Remember, they have their own motives – it’s to fill their pockets.

The fact is, new businesses are being started right this minute – and fortunes are being made as I write this. You simply need to be positioned correctly!

I began my online business 10 years ago – and survived the economic crisis of the post 9/11 era. And left a secure job to do it, and have never looked back.

People turn to the internet even more in times like these to compare products, save gas, start their own business, supplement their household income, make extra cash for Christmas, and much more.

Why should you not benefit by creating a presence online, becoming an internet entrepreneur?

There are fortunes to be made in recessions. The internet is the key.

These plugins are great for helping you automate and monetize your blogs! As far as I know, all these plugins are compatible with the latest WordPress version. Please feel free to suggest other great plugins below.

If you find these useful, help spread the word and STUMBLE THIS POST!

Landing Sites – When visitors is referred to your site from a search engine, it shows them related posts to their search on your blog.
http://theundersigned.net/2006/06/landing-sites-11

Maintenance Mode Plugin – Adds a splash page to your blog that lets visitors know your blog is down for maintenance. Logged in administrators get full access to the blog including the front-end.
http://sw-guide.de/wordpress/plugins/maintenance-mode/

Theme Test Drive – allows you to safely test drive any theme on your blog as an administrator, while visitors continue to see the default one.
http://www.prelovac.com/vladimir/wordpress-plugins/theme-test-drive

Comment Relish – Sends a thank you e-mail to your first time commentators.
http://www.justinshattuck.com/2007/03/19/comment-relish-wordpress-plugin

Digital Fingerprint — useful for detecting content theft.
http://www.maxpower.ca/wordpress-plugin-digital-fingerprint-detecting-content-theft/2006/09/25/#intro

Subscribe To Comments – Allows readers to recieve notifications of new comments that are posted to an entry.
http://txfx.net/code/wordpress/subscribe-to-comments/

MyAvatars – shows MyBlogLog’s avatars in your comments
http://www.napolux.com/2006/12/14/myavatars-a-wordpress-plugin-for-mybloglog/

Brian’s Threaded Comments – adds a ‘Reply to this comment’ link to every comment. Makes it easy for people to reply to comments and discuss better.
http://meidell.dk/archives/2006/12/19/brians-threaded-comments-159/

Dofollow – lets you remove the nofollow attribute from your comments.
http://www.semiologic.com/software/wp-fixes/dofollow/

WP-Contact Form with Spam Protection – creates a contact form on your blog, through which your readers can contact you easily.
http://www.douglaskarr.com/projects/wp-contactform/

Google XML Sitemaps Generator – creates a sitemap of all articles on your WordPress blog. Helps Google and other search engines index every article you write.
http://www.arnebrachhold.de/projects/wordpress-plugins/google-xml-sitemaps-generator/

All in One SEO Pack – Optimizes your Wordpress blog for Search Engines (Search Engine Optimization).
http://wp.uberdose.com/2007/03/24/all-in-one-seo-pack/

Enforce www. Preference – will help preserve your permalinks by enforcing your no-www or yes-www preference and will strip off index.php from the ends of URIs.
http://txfx.net/code/wordpress/enforce-www-preference/

Quick META Keywords – will automatically add META Keywords tags to every single post based on categories under which the article is categorized.
http://www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/quick-meta-keywords-wordpress-plugin/

Related Posts – Returns a list of the related entries based on active/passive keyword matches. Increase pageviews by providing targeted related content.
http://wasabi.pbwiki.com/Related%20Entries

Lightbox JS Plugin – used to overlay images on the current page into neat Javascript-powered overlay popups.
http://www.4mj.it/lightbox-js-v20-wordpress/

WordPress Mobile Edition – shows an interface designed for a mobile device when visitors come to your site on a mobile device.
http://alexking.org/projects/wordpress/readme?project=wordpress-mobile-edition

Popularity Contest – keeps a count of your post, category and archive views, comments, trackbacks, etc. and uses them to determine which of your posts are most popular.
http://alexking.org/projects/wordpress/readme?project=popularity-contest

Clean Archives – designed to display your archive listings in a clean and uniform fashion. It lists the Month / Year, the day of the month the article was published, the title of the article, and the number of comments that have been made on each article.
http://sporadicnonsense.com/index.php/2005/04/28/clean-archives-plug-in/

KB Advanced RSS Widget - a wordpress widget that gives you complete control over how RSS feeds are parsed for your sidebar.
http://adambrown.info/b/widgets/category/kb-advanced-rss/

Adhesive – lets you make the posts “sticky”, such that the posts will remain at the top of the page.
http://wp-plugins.net/plugin/Adhesive/#plugin_63

Permalinks Migration Plugin – safely change your permalink structure without breaking the old links to your website or affecting your search engine rankings.
http://www.deanlee.cn/wordpress/permalinks-migration-plugin/

Share This – lets your visitors to add your post to various social bookmarking sites, or send a link via e-mail to a friend.
http://sharethis.com/publisher?type=wpplugin

Digg this – detects incoming links from Digg.com to your wordpress post and automatically display a link back to the digg post, for people to digg your story.
http://www.aviransplace.com/index.php/digg-this-wordpress-plugin/http://www.aviransplace.com/index.php/digg-this-wordpress-plugin/

WP-Notable – displays a series of icons below each post allowing your readers to easily submit you to many different social bookmarking and networking sites.
http://www.calevans.com/view.php/page/notable

WP-Email – Allows people to recommend/send your WordPress blog’s post/page to a friend.
http://www.lesterchan.net/wordpress/readme/wp-email.html

WP-PostRatings – Adds an AJAX rating system for your WordPress blog’s post/page.
http://www.lesterchan.net/wordpress/readme/wp-postratings.html

EasyTube – allows you to easily embed YouTube and Google Videos using one simple tag.
http://www.ejump.co.uk/wordpress/easytube-plugin-for-wordpress/

Twitter Updater – automatically sends a Twitter status update to your Twitter account when you create, publish, or edit your WordPress post.
http://blog.victoriac.net/blog/twitter-updater

WordPress Database Backup – On-demand backup of your WordPress database. Back up your blog today.
http://www.ilfilosofo.com/blog/wp-db-backup

WP-Supercache – A modification of WP-Cache that produces static html files.
http://ocaoimh.ie/wp-super-cache/

Batch Categories – Easily manage the mass categorization of posts that match various criteria. Power edit your categories.
http://robm.me.uk/projects/plugins/wordpress/batch-categories/

PodPress – adds lots of features designed to make WordPress the ideal platform for hosting a podcast.
http://www.mightyseek.com/podpress/

TinyMCE Advanced – adds 16 plugins to TinyMCE, the WordPress wysiwyg editor. Adds over 40 new buttons to the toolbar, which is now two rows plus one hidden row.
http://www.laptoptips.ca/projects/tinymce-advanced/

Exec-PHP – allows php tags inside the content or excerpt of your posts and pages to be executed just as in usual PHP files.
http://bluesome.net/post/2005/08/18/50/

Photo Dropper – lets you add free photos (Flickr/Creative Commons) to your blog posts without leaving Wordpress.
http://www.photodropper.com/

Wordpress Reporter – allows you to easily view your Google Analytics and Feedburner reports in your WordPress administration area.
http://tantannoodles.com/toolkit/wordpress-reports/

WordPress.com Stats – Tracks views, post/page views, referrers, and clicks. Requires a WordPress.com API key.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/stats/

Ad Rotator – Rotates Ads randomly from a specified text file.
http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/wordpress-plugin-adrotator-rotate-your-ads-including-adsense-dynamically/2/

AdSense-Deluxe – is a WordPress plugin offering advanced options for managing the automatic insertion of Google AdSense or Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN) ads to your WordPress posts.
http://www.acmetech.com/blog/adsense-deluxe/

Buy Me a Beer – allows your readers to donate money to you via PayPal on pretext of buying a beer.
http://www.blogclout.com/blog/goodies/buy-me-a-beer-paypal-donation-plugin/

Wordpress BankRoll – offers to help you cut out the middleman by allowing advertisers to buy reviews directly on your blog.
http://www.wpbankroll.com/

Global Translator - Translate your blog into multiple languages in a search engine friendly way.
http://www.nothing2hide.net/blog/wp-plugins/wordpress-global-translator-plugin/

Feedburner Feedsmith – Forwards all feed traffic to Feedburner while creating a randomized feed for Feedburner to pull from.
http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/help/wordpress_quickstart/

Simple Feed Copyright – adds a simple copyright notice to full text wordpress feeds.
http://www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/simple-feed-copyright-wordpress-plugin/

RSS Signature – allow the addition of a custom tagline, signature or copyright message to the wordpress generated rss feeds.
http://www.smackfoo.com/plugins/sig2feed/

Democracy – adds AJAX polling functionality to your WordPress blog.
http://blog.jalenack.com/archives/democracy/

No Self Ping – keeps your site from pinging itself.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/no-self-ping/

Draft Notifier – sends a notification email to your blog’s admin address when a post is written by a Contributor or when such a post is edited.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/draft-notifier/

Cap Comments – turns off comments when a post achieves a pre-set comment count.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/cap-comments

Did you know that the prime decision makers when it comes to purchasing products and services are women?

~ Donna Fox ~ www.whyshebuys.com

Donna Fox knows, and she’s not only a great marketer, but also one of the top experts in how to market to women.

In this powerful, 96-minute interview with Tony Blake, Donna reveals not only why most entrepreneurs are making huge mistakes in their marketing when it comes to women, she tells you how to fix the problems.

Donna goes deep into the reasons women buy, why they have become the prime decision makers, the psychology behind marketing to women effectively and how to position your products and services the correct way, appealing to both genders.

This is probably one of the best and most information filled interviews ever done for Inside The Marketers Mind, and one that marketers must listen to – because if you don’t, chances are you’re leaving a lot of money on the table…

Visit the Anthony Blake Online – Entrepreneurial Success Forum today and gain access to this amazing interview with Donna Fox, as well as those in the Member Area with other well-known marketers who provide powerful, inside information on exactly how to increase your bottom line.

Here are some free products that can help save you from malicious software and eavesdroppers. Don’t leave your computer (and your business!) exposed and vulnerable.

The Internet is one of the biggest security holes in the world. When you’re online, websites can gather a massive amount of information about you. Trojan horses and spyware can snoop on you. Keyloggers can capture your keystrokes as you type. Eavesdroppers can steal your passwords.

The free downloads presented here can help to protect you, your family and your business, providing a safer online experience. I did not include antivirus or antispyware programs in favour of focusing on tools you might not have heard about.

Firewalls

A firewall is one of the most basic pieces of protection software you can get. A firewall can shield you from inbound snoopers and even prevent software from sitting invisibly on your computer, making outbound connections to report your activities to unknown sources.

Comodo Firewall Pro

You may figure that you’re perfectly safe if you already have a firewall on your computer through Windows XP or Vista. You aren’t. The firewalls built into both of those systems have issues. The Windows XP firewall, for example, lacks outbound protection. And the Windows Vista firewall is very, very difficult to customize.

An awesome download for a truly flame-proof firewall is the Comodo Firewall. It offers protection for both inbound and outbound threats, along with some very nice additional features. Its Defense+ feature, for example, locks down particularly vulnerable files and folders so that nothing can alter them.

You will have to spend a bit of time training this software, but it’s well worth the effort. What will happen is that you’ll get a pop-up when installing or accessing software that asks you whether you want to allow the application to proceed. You can cut down on the training time and the number of interruptions by using the program’s Clean PC mode. In this mode, Comodo scans your PC for applications and registers them as “safe”. Afterward, you won’t see as many alerts. Another nice extra is an “install mode” that shuts off the firewall for 15 minutes, so you can install a new application without getting inundated with alerts.

FREE Download: Comodo Firewall Pro
http://www.comodo.com/index.html

Vista Firewall Control

The Windows Vista firewall is better than the one built into Windows XP because it includes outbound as well as inbound protection. Outbound protection is vital, because Trojan horses and spyware often use silent outbound connections to do their damage. In addition, some malicious software uses invisible outbound connection from your computer to send out spam or malware without your knowledge.

It has one big problem, however… The outbound firewall is almost impossible to configure.
The Vista Firewall Control utility gives you the control that Vista SHOULD have. When a program attempts to make any outbound connection an alert appears, identifying the application. You can then choose to enable or disable the connection.

FREE Download: Vista Firewall Control
http://www.sphinx-soft.com/Vista/

Password Protection

Password theft is one of the biggest problems that a user faces online. With the following downloads, you’ll be able to keep your passwords private and safe.

KeePass Password Safe

Most people have dozens of online and offline passwords used for websites, e-mail, and more. If your password is stolen, you’re in trouble.

KeePass Password Safe offers a simple way to keep track of and store all of your passwords in a lightweight, simple-to-use database. It encrypts the database so that only you have access to it. You can lock it with a master password or with a file key.
KeePass Password Safe stores all of your passwords in groups, so you can find the one you need easily, letting you drag-and-drop your passwords, copy them to the clipboard, and paste them into a webpage or an application using a hot-key. You can also search for passwords, and print and export them in various formats, including CSV, HTML, TXT, and XML files. You can import them, too. This application can generate random passwords as well.

FREE Download: KeePass Password Safe
http://keepass.info/

KeyScrambler Personal

One of the biggest risks you face online is theft of your username and passwords from logging into commercial websites (such as banking and financial sites) and web-based e-mail accounts. A criminal who steals that information could easily empty your bank account and steal your identity.

This add-on to Internet Explorer and Firefox is intended as a simple way to help keep you safer. As you type your password, KeyScrambler Personal scrambles it so that the information sent out over the Internet doesn’t match what you type. A small icon sits at the bottom of your screen and as you type, you’ll also see the scrambled text that the program is sending.

FREE Download: KeyScrambler Personal
http://www.qfxsoftware.com/

Cleaning Your Traces

As you surf the internet, your web browser keeps traces of your travels on your computer. Websites and people who may use your computer can look at those traces as well. Fortunately, there are tools that can get rid of the tracks you leave behind. Another privacy problem relates to Microsoft Office. Documents that contain private information (unknown to the sender) that get sent out by e-mail.

Free Internet Window Washer

To maintain your privacy, you need an internet washer like Free Internet Window Washer – a free tool that will delete your IE browsing history, recently typed URLs, etc. Click Wash Settings, then click Browsers, and the program will remove everything you ask it to clean. If you prefer, click Test Now to see a preview of what the program will do.
Free Internet Window Washer also cleans traces from instant messengers such as AIM, ICQ, MSN Messenger, Skype, and Yahoo! Messenger. It also cleans traces from a wide variety of other programs, including Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat.

FREE Download: Free Internet Window Washer
http://www.eusing.com/Window_Washer/Window_Washer.htm

CCleaner

Here’s another great tool for cleaning up all traces of your internet browsing activities. While CCleaner cleans both Internet Explorer and Firefox, it also cleans traces from Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Flash Player, Google Toolbar, and Windows Media Player. It even cleans up after larger apps such as Microsoft Office, and it also includes a registry cleaner.

FREE Download: CCleaner
http://www.ccleaner.com/

SendShield

A lesser-known privacy issue may be among the most dangerous: hidden, private information in Microsoft Office documents that become exposed when the documents are made public. This problem has struck some of the best-know enterprises in the world – such as Google, and even the British government. Office documents contain lots of private info that the owner might prefer remain private, such as hidden text, document authors, revision histories, mark-up, hidden cells, and hidden spreadsheets. When such information hitchhikes along with the visible text of a document, people can find it without much effort.

SendShield is an excellent, well-designed and free solution. When you send a Microsoft Office document through Outlook, SendShield looks inside the document for private information and shows you what it finds. You can then delete all of the information you wish. The deletion affects only the copy of the document you send; the original file remains intact on your computer.

FREE Download: SendShield
http://www.sendshield.com/home/index.php

Rootkit and Malware Killers

Even the best antivirus and antispyware tools can’t keep your information and computer completely safe. Rootkits can often escape detection, and once they are installed in your computer system, a malicious person can take control of your system and steal whatever private info they want. Here are two rootkit/malware killers that may help tip the odds in your favour.

F-Secure Blacklight Rootkit Eliminator

Rootkits spread in various ways, such as by hitching a ride along on another download. Then it hides deep in your system, using sneaky techniques to escape detection and elimination. With a rootkit infecting your system, someone can take complete control of your computer without your knowledge. Some antivirus tools claim to detect and kill them, but many don’t. Even if your antivirus software claims to detect them, it’d be wise to use F-Secure’s Blacklight Rootkit Eliminator as well. This tool is designed exclusively to detect and kill rootkits.

The program inspects your computer’s files and hidden processes to determine if you’ve been infected with a rootkit. It then tells you whether your system is clean or may be infected, listing every sign of infection that it found. You can then use Blacklight Rootkit Eliminator to remove the threat. Before taking that step, though, it’s a good idea to search for the file name on Google and make sure that the file is a rootkit and not some obscure, legitimate file.

If you don’t feel comfortable renaming, restoring, and deleting files – and troubleshooting PCs – you may be wiser to pass on this more advanced utility.

FREE Download: F-Secure Blacklight Rootkit Eliminator
http://www.f-secure.com/security_center/

HijackThis

If spyware or a Trojan gets past your defenses despite your best efforts, download HijackThis. It can help detect problems that other malware detectors can’t find, and then will advise you about what to do.

Unlike most other antimalware software, HijackThis doesn’t automatically detect dangerous software. Instead, it looks deeply into your system’s Registry and into other areas that are likely to be infected, and then saves its results to a log file. You then post the log file to the HijackThis website for experts to examine. They analyze, determine if your system is infected, and then tell you how to fix the problem.

FREE Download: HijackThis
http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/tools/security_tools/hijackthis

Browsing Privacy and Security

Looking for multipurpose tools for protecting your privacy and security? The following three can help you surf anonymously, avoid trouble at wireless hot spots, and receive alerts about certain sites that may host malware designed to invade your privacy.

Tor

A surprising amount of information about you can be gathered as you surf… The operating system you use, the sites you’ve visited, your location, and possibly even your company (based on your IP address).

Tor takes all of your internet communications, including instant messaging and other Internet applications, and sends them around a network of “onion” routers (Tor servers), making it impossible for sites or people to invade your privacy.

The Tor download includes other software that you need for maintaining your privacy, such as Privoxy, a proxy program. These programs work well together; and because the software self-configures, they are simple to use. Tor runs in your system tray. To become anonymous, right-click the icon and choose Start. From that point on, you’ll be anonymous. To stop surfing anonymously, right-click again and choose Stop. You can even change your Tor identity for maximum cloaking.

FREE Download: Tor
http://www.torproject.org/

Hotspot Shield

Online dangers can even  arise when you’re away from your home or office: Wi-Fi hacking and snooping. In a hotspot at a public location, a criminal can set up a “sniffer” to capture all the data sent by everyone in the area. The snoop can see all of the information you send and receive over the Internet, including your user names and passwords.

Hotspot Shield sets up a virtual private network (VPN) for you and encrypts all of your data so that it can’t be read. It’s quite simple to install, set up, and use, except that during the installation process, you must make sure not to let the Dealio toolbar be installed. It’s adware that has nothing to do with how the program works, and choosing not to install it won’t have any adverse effects.

FREE Download: Hotspot Shield
http://anchorfree.com/downloads/hotspot-shield/

McAfee Site Advisor for Firefox
Most people get infected by downloading software or by visiting a website that installs malware without their knowledge. How can you know which are safe and which ones aren’t? MacAfee SiteAdvisor does a great job of letting you know. When you perform a search in Google or Yahoo, you’ll see an icon that rates the safety of the sites. A red X warns you that it’s a dangerous sites; a green check means that it’s safe; and a yellow exclamation mark means that it’s questionable.

Hover your mouse over the icon and a pop-up will appear, letting you know whether the site has dangerous downloads, if the site sends spam, and whether the site includes links to other sites that are known risks. You get even more information when you click “More Info” on the pop-up where you’ll get a detailed list of the dangerous downloads, and what malware or adware infects the site.

Site Advisor works when you browse sites as well. The software displays a small icon at the bottom of the screen as you surf. The icon warns you when you hit a dangerous site.

FREE Download: McAfee Site Advisor for Firefox
http://www.siteadvisor.com/

Firefox Add-Ons

These three privacy-related, Firefox add-ons are some of the best available to improve your browsing experience.

NoScript

Interactive features can be used to attack and damage your computer. JavaScript, plug-ins, Java, and other kinds of code on websites can be hazardous. But the problem is, if you turn them off you lose some of the best things on the Web; and if you keep them, you expose yourself to danger.

NoScript is a Firefox extension that lets you turn scripts, plug-ins, and other interactive elements on or off independently, turned on at some sites and turned off at others. It also protects against cross-site scripting attacks, as well, lets you to customize which scripts and/or extensions you allow on a per-site basis. You can also block sites temporarily or permanently.

FREE Download: NoScript
http://noscript.net/getit

WOT

WOT is a Firefox add-on that rates sites according to their privacy, security, and trustworthiness, from Excellent to Very Poor. It displays an icon indicating how it rates a particular site. As you search, you’ll be able to see the icon as well, so you can decide before visiting a site whether you want to go there.

FREE Download: WOT
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3456

Secure Login

Secure Login provides a way for you to log in to websites securely. It integrates with Firefox’s password list so when you visit a site, you can log in by clicking a button instead of having to type in your user name and password. Secure Login keeps your passwords safe in various ways. It stops malicious JavaScript code from stealing your password, and it can block other password-stealing attacks.

FREE Download: Secure Login
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4429

Don’t forget to check out the additional Free Downloads I’ve posted over at ABlakeForum.com – a total of 40 “must have” tools and resources for your business. Here are the links:

http://ablakeforum.com/index.php/topic,1071.0.html

http://ablakeforum.com/index.php/topic,1237.0.html

Have fun!