How To Build Your Fortune Online By Helping Local Businesses

With the Internet world growing by leaps and bounds on a daily basis, more and more people are spending hours each day on line. You can now search for an abundance of information on just about any topic on the internet, and purchase everything from computer software to your groceries.
In fact, on line businesses, when well marketed, are fast growing and very profitable. Many people are looking to get their piece of the pie. Internet Marketing is in high demand, especially in one particular niche that many people over look. There is a virtually untapped income opportunity just waiting for internet marketers.
If you are looking to make some extra cash, you might be surprised to find out that the plain old fashioned local (small and medium sized) brick and mortar stores are in need of internet marketing services. In fact, some would say they are in desperate need.
It has been shown over and over again that the small local business can benefit tremendously when they advertise their business on the Internet. For most small business owners this is easier said than done.
The problems that off line businesses have are that more often than not, they do not know much if anything about on line marketing or even where to begin. Therefore, they either miss out on this money making opportunity or they have to hire someone to help them. This is where the internet marketer comes in. Internet marketers can greatly help the small business owner. As an internet marketer, you can work to help brick and mortar business owners advertise for new customers on the internet.
There are of course a variety of ways to help bring new customers to local off line businesses. Some very simple ideas include, listing the business on yellow page sites, posting coupons for the business at coupon sites and advertise them on Google Local.
However, one of the most profitable ways to promote a local off line business is to create a website with a blog. Blogging is the up and coming way to advertise, and Internet Marketers are fast working to set up such Internet sites. Blogs have great promise for the local business owner. Having a blog promoting your business that provides relevant information can reap some promising outcomes. Finally, setting up an on-line mailing list to your customers can be very advantageous.
Customers can be updated on new blog postings, upcoming sales and new products. Emailing customers also can cut costs if the business owner had previously mailed out information to customers.
In conclusion, if you are an internet marketer and currently looking for additional income opportunities, you truly should consider hitting up the local businesses where you live. Many of them probably don't even know that they could benefit from your services.

How To learn Touch-type - The 10-finger-system

Ours is a system dominated by computers and advanced technology. We have learned to rely on computers for performing various activities, including those that are work related. In fact, most of us have become in time proficient typists. So, how do we learn touch typing?
Is there a special resource we can use in order to learn the 10 finger system? The Internet offers to us once more the answers we are looking for, starting with maschinenschreiben freeware.
The first concept of typing appeared with the introduction of maschinenschreiben (typing with the aid of a typewriter).
Computers replaced typewriters (and thus maschinenschreiben) and then the 10 finger system was introduced. Today, with the aid of the Internet technology we are able to discover the advantages of touch typing and take a typing test in just a couple of minutes (maschinenschreiben lernen).
Why should we be interested in the 10 finger typing system? The answer is obvious. We need to develop accurate and fast typing, especially as we use the computer to type various documents and papers. It’s similar indeed to maschinenschreiben lernen (learning to type using a typewriter) but it presents a greater number of advantages, allowing to you become a better writer.
The 10 finger system is based on the constant use of training lessons and texts, permitting the user to increase the typing speed in a short period of time.
Touch typing can be beneficial no matter if you are a freelancer, a businessman using the computer all the time or a programmer.
It will not take too long before maschinenschreiben will enter into your reflex, allowing to save time and develop special abilities required for touch typing. You can also become a registered user on the website, increasing your power for the 10 finger system and taking any typing test you desire. There are also special training lessons to be found for problem fingers, reducing the number of errors in writing.
As you gradually advance in learning the 10 finger typing system, you can also take a speed typing test. You will see how fast you really are, meaning how many words you can type per minutes. There are plenty of short training texts available for you to test your speed and other writing skills. The 10 finger system is based on exercise lessons, with the practice applet showing you exactly when you press a certain key on the keyboard.
You are also shown the error rate and indication for you to proceed to the next lesson.
These typing tests are very well for you to become more experienced (maschinenschreiben deluxe for passionate typists).We all know that they keyboard layout depends on the land of residence. This is why these specialists offer you the great advantage of selecting the right one for you.
You can choose between the keyboard layout for Germany, Austria, France, US, UK, Switzerland and Spain, learning touch typing as you should. Online, you can check out the typing test overview and select a lesson you prefer. You can think to concentrate on a specific key (f, j, k, l, etc.), go for SHIFT left/right touch typing or basic number capitalization.
The articles contain the alphabet and frequent words, all being short and easy to type. You will become a proficient writer in no time, thanks to maschinenschreiben online programs!

How To Ignite The Multimedia Hidden Inside Of Your Computer!

Pc Satellite Tv Review

The facts are now apparent but not alarming as the number of Internet video/TV watchers continue to rise. Although the number of home video/television watchers remain on top by a large margin, a continue rise in Internet video and TV watchers could make a significant gain in the very near future. If the thought of downloading a Satellite TV to PC software to watch tons of videos and channels never made an impression, perhaps now is the right time to consider it seriouslyTo do so will mean avoiding the duds and scams by sticking with a top software service. To watch Satellite TV on your PC will means receiving free Internet television entertainment. It needs to be simple as possible while providing legal access and a risk-free, scam-free environment when delivering on a promise made to consumers. As a result, looking over your shoulders, worrying about spyware/adware/viruses, and skepticism are eliminated. To avoid making crucial mistakes, the best way to learn how to use software to watch computer Internet TV is knowing what it can and can't do.Firstly, understand the Satellite TV on your computer myth. Although a top TV on PC software will provide an instant gateway to free Internet TV/Radio/Music/VOD on a PC, it doesn't offer Satellite or Cable TV programming. Without question, it provides the next best thing through Internet TV which offers more TV savings, variety, freedom, flexibility, and mobility than Satellite and Cable networks. Therefore, the least of your worries will be a software that decodes or descrambles paid-TV signals and channels--it simple doesn't.Secondly, even a top Satellite TV to PC software have flaws which is generally overlooked when hype clouds better judgment. Or when there is not enough information to make a well informed decision prior to paying the small one-time fee. When something sounds too good to be true it's because the writer, reviewer, or seller are not revealing the flaws. Besides knowing an Internet broadband connection is needed in order for a Satellite TV on your PC software to work on a Windows or Vista desktop/laptop computer, generally speaking more understanding is needed.Does the software work 100% of the time when downloading it to a computer?There is a 20% (+/-) chance of failure. Why? Because of the pre-installed hardware and software already in the user's computer. Remember this is very rare, as 80% (+/-) of the time it works very well. There are solutions to these issues, but they are generally left out before making a purchase. Meanwhile, there is a little secret that one can use to test out a top Satellite TV on your computer software that offers no free-trial.Thirdly, what brings more trust to potential customers is product awareness that eliminates the feeling that something is too good to be true. This is where an unbiased customer review comes into play. Relying on information from a merchant's website only will mean a mistake is bound to happen, whereas finding information outside the merchant is best. In addition, one of the few misconceptions is thinking that all merchants handle their own sales/refunds transactions. Knowing precising who handles and processes all sales/refunds is key to getting a refund quicker.Generally speaking, many of the top and wiser Satellite TV on your computer merchants don't want to handle this work--since they don't have the man power or skill to do so. Consequently, many merchants today usually outsource this work to a highly reputable source such as Plimus, ClickBank, or PayPal. This is more information that needs to be covered to bring more awareness. So reading a good customer review that provides the pros and cons is key to a getting the right software package and service.What makes a great TV doesn't mean it has to be paid for or doing anything illegal to get it. When having Satellite TV on your computer through software, it makes accessing tons of free Internet TV/Radio/Music/VOD easier and faster as oppose to doing everything yourself. Newbies receive an easy path to discovering the power of the Internet and all (not some) of its unlimited free media via a computer Internet tV setup, along with the perks for more enjoyment.When watching regular home TV channels becomes boring, sharing a TV-set with other people is annoying, living without paid-TV, or traveling near and afar means no television to pass the time away, a top Satellite TV to PC software offers plenty of advantages--not just one.

How to learn Sing Online & Get A Great Voice!

Are you too shy or embarrassed to sing in front to a crowd? Or maybe you are not confident enough to even see a singing coach to improve your voice? Perhaps you have the confidence but the time and money to invest in live tutoring is just too much?
If any of these things are close to your situation you may be interested in how to learn to sing online!
Getting a better singing voice is not just in the hands of singing coaches as like any skill as long as you gain the knowledge and practice from somewhere you can master it.
These days you can download software packages with many features that can aid you in the task just as well as any live tutor and with many other advantages too.
Flexible learning styles.
With audio, visual and text guides some software packages cater to a range of learnersFlexible learning times.
You can choose to learn at your own pace wherever YOU want.Private learning.
By practicing by yourself in privacy you can gain the confidence and skills you need to perform to more people without stage fright and shyness.
Cost effective. Most downloads you can buy are less than $100 and when you compare that to a singing coach over many weeks this is much cheaper and you can continue to use that download for as long as you need.
As you can see learning to sing online through downloadable guides and software can be a real advantage for those looking to start singing or those just looking to brush up and improve their singing to make it even better.

How To Learn Php?

For years, ASP has been one of the most popular server-side scripting languages and for good reason. It is easy to learn, can be based on either Visual Basic scripting or Java scripting, and it runs on any Windows based server. But therein is the problem.
It only runs on Windows based machines. With the growing popularity of UNIX and Apache based web servers, a new open sourced scripting language was needed. Out of this need grew PHP. PHP runs on all of the widely used web servers, including Windows. It also works with most of the common databases, such as MySQL, and can handle ODBC for any other database with an ODBC driver.
With more and more applications being driven to the World Wide Web, server-side scripting languages like PHP make sense.
In a server-side scripting language, all of the processing takes place on the server. This means that the developer can create a fully scalable application at the source and have full control over the environment.
The user, on the client side, enters data and clicks a button. This sends a request to the server with the form data embedded in the request. The server then takes this request, passes it on to the PHP translator that evaluates and processes the information, then returns simple HTML back to the client.
PHP uses a combination of HTML, scripts and tags to create code that is easy to structure and read. Anyone with knowledge of HTML and a scripting language such as Javascript or VBScript will be up and running in no time. And there is no shortage of places to learn PHP on the Web. If you need a fast, open-source, easy to learn scripting language for your website, PHP is the way to go.

Learn How To Keep Skin Young Looking

Did you know some societies have known secrets about how to keep skin young looking for thousands of years? Whether it was the use of seaweed masks, honey facials, palm oil, olive oil or parasols to protect their faces from the sun, many women had the right idea. The latest research confirms that.
During the 1970s, 80s and even into the 90s, sunbathing and tanning was a common practice. The idea of a “healthy” tan was promoted by companies that made tanning beds. They even claimed that the UV emitted from their beds was safer than exposure to sunlight. A lot of people fell for it.
Because of the sun-worshipping craze, there are a lot of people in the 40+ age group that have more wrinkles and age spots than they should.
Those things can be blamed on sun damage. UV rays, whether they come from a bulb or the sun, stimulate the production of molecules called free radicals. The body’s only defenses against free radicals are antioxidant molecules. Supporting the skin’s antioxidant content is the first step in how to keep skin young looking.
Once we pass the age of 40, it is necessary to improve the skin’s antioxidant content. Older skin cells contain more free radicals and produce fewer antioxidants. We get antioxidants like the vitamins A, C and E from foods like fruits and vegetables.
The cells of the body produce more powerful antioxidants like coenzyme Q10, glutathione and superoxide dismutase.Of course, the body must be well nourished in order to produce those antioxidants. So, eating your fruits and veggies and taking your daily multi-vitamin is important. But, if you are really serious about how to keep skin young looking, you will apply some of those antioxidants directly.
No, you can’t grind up your multi-vitamin and mix it water to create a paste. The particles would be too large to penetrate the skin’s cells and layers, even if you used the strongest food processor available.
It takes nanotechnology to make the particles small enough to penetrate. With nanotechnology, we can reduce the size of the particles to the point where they will pass through the tiny gaps in the skin’s brick and mortar construction.
Nano-emulsified coenzyme Q10 has been shown to penetrate through seven of the skin’s layers, soaking up free radicals and repairing damage done by the sun.Scientists have been investigating how to keep skin young looking for many years. Now, they understand the causes of an aged appearance and they understand how to address those causes with topically applied creams. Free radical damage from the sun is one of the biggest causes of cellular aging. Inflammation plays a role.
Decreased production of collagen and elastin fibers contributes to sagging. And, low levels of hyaluronic acid make the skin look less smooth. Now that you know this luckily, there are creams that address all of those issues. If you want to learn how to keep skin young looking, you should learn more about those anti-aging creams. It will be time well spent.

How To Learn One Million English Words?

There will be a millionth English word according to the Global Language Monitor, a Web site that uses a math formula to estimate how often words are created.Feel frustrated when you know the language—English you are learning is always growing? Paul J.J.
Payack, president and chief word analyst for the Global Language Monitor, says not like French, "English has the tradition of swallowing new words whole," he said. "Other languages translate."
English learners tend to memorize words day by day, through computers, TV and some e-books, thinking in that way they can know every word after days of hard-work. However, many college English majors tell me they feel just disheartened in memorizing so many words.
After years of accumulating thousands of words, they still meet a great many new words. Actually, not every English-speaking person knows all words in the English vocabulary. An average educated person knows about 20,000 words and uses about 2,000 words in a week. Just do your best!Here are some personal tips for reference
1.Find a way to the language. For Example, if you like Lil' Wayne, and don’t want to read the thickly dotted introduction. You can see video about him (better with Captions), or any sort of information that aspires your interest.
2.Try to learn more about the country and their people but not only focus on the grammar. Know more and get to understand the way foreigners are thinking, which at least broadens your horizons.
3.Create an environment for yourself. Many people choose to learn abroad, it is a good way but also very expensive. Don’t you notice that there are many foreigners home? Find a job that most foreigners work or hang out there, like restaurant, an apartment…Can you guys tell me more about how to become a good and happy English Learner? Many e-books are explaining the method but I prefer to get ideas from people from all walks of life.

How To Learn Spanish Language In Easy Way

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Learn How To Make Money Teaching English Online

In order to be able to teach English online, you’ll need some basic equipment, including a computer, internet connection and a webcam or microphone.
You’ll connect with students via Skype or Messenger and conduct sessions where you’ll tutor them in the English language.The qualification for teaching English online is called a TEFL or TESOL certificate, and it’s recommended – although not completely necessary - that you complete this short course if you don’t already have any teaching experience, or if you’d just like to know what your job will involve.
There are many different institutes that offer TEFL training, and you can even complete the course via correspondence or online.You will find that teaching English online is an exciting and satisfying career choice; you will be well paid and will meet people from all over the world who are keen to learn and practice the language, simply by talking to you.
Often students choose to learn online due to time or location constraints, but other advantages include a more relaxed atmosphere and the ability to be able to record and review sessions at a later date which reinforces learning.
When you choose to teach English online, you should know that you are embarking on a worthwhile career helping others with their self development, and you shall be rewarded well for your efforts.

How to become Internet famous

For those seeking Internet fame, here's some advice: Don't try."It's precisely the people who seem to try too hard or want to prolong their Internet fame for way longer than the Internet is willing to give them that get the most crap ," says Tim Hwang, a research associate at Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society.Hwang is most famous for organizing a conference called ROFLcon in April 2008 that brought together some of the Web's biggest stars for a few days in Cambridge, Mass..
(ROFL is text-message speak for “rolling on the floor, laughing.”)One Web celeb who didn't make the event is Numa Numa Guy, Gary Brolsma. He became Internet famous in 2004 when he posted a goofy video of himself lip-synching to the song "Dragostea Din Tei" by the Romanian pop group O-Zone to the Web site Newgrounds.com. Brolsma, who made the video while bored, thought it might make a few people laugh.
Instead, it went viral, racking up millions of hits as it spread on the Web like wildfire. Numa Numa Guy even made an episode of Comedy Central's “South Park” alongside animated Web luminaries including Tron Guy, “Star Wars" Kid and Chris Croker – the Leave Briney Alone guy."In the time since then, the Numa Numa Guy put up a new site called NewNuma and he's tried really, really hard to prolong his Internet fame, but as a result, no one has paid attention to him, or when they do they kind of make fun of him," Hwang says.
Really, don't try
Not trying is central to the story of Internet superstar Christian Lander, the comedy writer behind the blog Stuff White Poepl Like, which serves as a nifty, tongue-in-cheek guide to understanding and interacting with upper-middle-class liberal elites. Entries offer insight to the phenomenon of taking a year off and explain why the critically acclaimed, low-rated TV show “The Wire” is so adored.Lander, a former copywriter and graduate-school dropout, says he started the blog with the expectation that a handful or two of his friends would get a chuckle. They did, and sent the link to friends. Within a few weeks, thousands of people were visiting the site. Within a few months, Lander had landed a book deal, making many white people incredibly envious."I didn't think for a second that it would be anywhere near this popular," he says. "My tip for getting Internet fame that I always like to pass on is, 'Don't try.'"Lander does offer an easier-said-than-done formula for success: Have a great idea, a great title and great execution."To do all three of those things requires an awful lot of luck and timing," he notes.For now, Lander continues to bask in the fleeting spotlight of Internet celebrity, but he says he doesn't expect it to last nor does he hold it in high regard."Internet fame, aside from maybe crime fame, is the lowest level of fame you could hope to achieve," he says.At best, fame might bring the opportunity – as it did for Lander – for career advancement (he quit the copywriting job to become a full-time comedy writer), but few Web stars are able to parlay their stardom into lasting Internet fame like Hollywood gossip columnist Perez Hilton did."I think it would be a lot more advantageous to be Internet rich than to be Internet famous," Lander says. "My advice is to wait for that law to get turned over and start an online poker site."
Get fired for blogging
Back in 2004, before most of the world knew what a blog was, former Delta Air Lines flight attendant Ellen Simonetti decided to start an online journal as a way to help her grieve over the loss of her mother to cancer. Simonetti mostly wrote about her travels and work and, over the course of nine months, she cultivated a following of about 100 readers.Then, her employer stumbled upon her now defunct blog, Queen of Sky: Diary of a Flight Attendant, and discovered Simonetti had posted pictures of herself in uniform. The airline promptly suspended her without pay and, a few weeks later, fired her. Simonetti wrote about her job loss and the story spread around the nascent blogosphere."Then the BBC online did a story and I got 90,000 hits on my blog when that came out, and then The New York Times started contacting me and various other people," she says. Much of the media coverage concentrated on free speech and company rules on blogging. "This stuff wasn't the norm back then," she adds. "Nobody even knew what a blog was."Simonetti adapted her blog into a book – a novel in blog format – and the book was optioned in 2008 for a TV film, which she is working on with a production company based in Canada. She is currently blogging on her new site, The Quen of Screen Blog.The experience of Web fame did not make her rich nor was it enjoyable, Simonetti says. "I'm a shy person, and so being thrust into the limelight all of the sudden was quite traumatic and so I'm actually glad that it has quieted down now."
Roll with it
According to Hwang, Internet fame often comes to people who are awkward or slightly goofy, or who exhibit otherwise fallible traits that everyday people also possess, making them easy for a Web audience to relate to. While the attention may prove embarrassing, his advice is to "roll with it."
For example, Matt Harding, a former video-game programmer from Connecticut who quit his day job to travel, gained Internet fame when a goofy video of him dancing at locations around the world went viral. Now, he gets paid "to travel wherever he wants in the world to do really whatever he wants, and it is really kind of an amazing deal on so many levels," Hwang says.
Harding found the success by accident. He started a Web site, Wher the Hell Is Matt, to keep friends and family up-to-date on his whereabouts. A traveling buddy suggested videoing Harding doing his dance – one that his Web site says is "the only dance Matt does." A few years later, someone found the video online and passed it around. The video spread and Harding became Internet famous.
Harding rolled with it. And since then, Stride gum has funded him on two more video-making trips with essentially no strings attached. About a quarter of the way into the most recent video, posted in 2008, Harding invites other people to join him dancing. That video went viral, too. Now, when he talks about his fame, he might even invite the audience to join him in dancing badly.
Do something interesting
Kyle MacDonald, who lives in a house in Kipling, Saskatchewan, says the secret to Internet fame is to do something interesting – just make sure that it's something of interest to you, too. "You've got to be passionate to make it work," he says. "I worked for over a year to get from one red paperclip to a house pretty much every day, 12 to 15 hours a day, trying to trade things."MacDonald is the guy who traded up from a red paper clip to his current digs, which he is now looking to trade for something else.
He started the famous bartering in July 2005, arranging the trades via postings on the online classified service Craigslist. After five trades, he started his blog, one red paperclip.
The link was passed around, chatter picked up in the blogosphere and then the mainstream media caught on. "The next thing you knew, I had hundreds of thousands of people going to the Web site," MacDonald says, adding that his idea – trying to trade a paper clip for a house – certainly had mainstream appeal.
All the media attention, in turn, helped him achieve his goal."I didn't try to do this to become some sort of Internet celebrity," he says. "I just tried to trade a paper clip for a house and the attention on that story definitely helped that happen."
Use traditional media
Susan Boyle, an aspiring singer from Scotland, reached Internet superstardom this spring while trying for fame the old-fashioned way – a television talent competition. She signed up for "Britain's Got Talent," which is hosted and produced by the brutally honest judge Simon Cowell, who is famous in the U.S. for his acerbic comments on his hit series "American Idol."Boyle's rise to Internet fame came when the video of her audition was posted on video-sharing Web sites shortly after it aired. In the audition, she comes on the stage clad in frumpy garb, has some awkwardly cheeky banter with the judges, who roll their eyes with can-you-believe-this looks, and then wows everyone with a stunning rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" from the musical “Les Miserables.”The performance, Boyle's back story (she says she's never been properly kissed, for example) and the judges’ reactions were an irresistible warm fuzzy for hundreds of millions of Web surfers, who were also given a rare glimpse of a truly ecstatic Cowell, who deadpans, "Susan, I knew the minute you walked out on that stage that we were gonna hear something extraordinary, and I was right."Boyle, who sings in her church choir, says there was some "try" in her road to superstardom. A few years ago, her mother passed away and Boyle stopped singing. She started to sing again to help get over the pain, she said in an interview with TV star Oprah Winfrey. "One of the reasons I applied for the TV show was to try and see if I could perform in front of an audience," she said.Boyle met success on the Web and the television show (she took second place in the talent competition) in part because she was doing something she enjoys. In her case, that's singing. Hwang, the ROFLcon organizer, says Web fame often finds people who follow their own dreams, such as comedy writer Lander and Randall Munroe, the artist behind the wildly popular Web comic xkcd."They were just trying to do what they wanted to do and it kind of exploded out unexpectedly from there," he says. "The Internet is really good at picking up on that."

3 Keyboard Shortcuts You Need to Learn Right Now

You know that Windows key on your keyboard? Most people overlook it, but that's a mistake. One press is the same as clicking the Start button with your mouse. And pressing it in concert with other keys can save you from having to reach for the mouse at all.
Here are three Windows-key shortcuts you should memorize immediately:
Windows-D - Minimizes all open windows so you can see the desktop. A second tap restores them.
Windows-E - Opens Windows Explorer (the file-management tool, not the browser). This is much quicker than right-clicking the Start button and then Explore, or trying to find Explorer in the Start menu.
Windows-F - Launches Windows' search tool (remember "F" for "find").
What's your favorite shortcut? I'm an Alt-Tab man, myself, but I use Windows-D and Windows-E pretty regularly.

How to Learn Anything on the Web

A tutorial or class for almost everything and anything is available online these days. Whether you're looking to beef up your résumé with some new skills, to get a degree while waiting for the job market to pick up, or simply to have a little fun learning something new, the Web has a wealth of educational resources -- many of them free.
To give you some ideas, we've put together a list of sites in several categories, from skills for budding entrepreneurs and learning foreign languages to gourmet cooking and the choreography for Michael Jackson's iconic "Thriller" dance.
You can always Google for anything you don't see here, but be careful as you click. In researching this story, I ran into many sites that either tried to sell me classes (with little or no real free instruction) or were infested with pop-ups and adware. Anti-malware software is a must. (See PC World's free download of anti-malware programs.)
Get a business up and running
So you have a business in mind? Start with a business plan that outlines the specifics of how you intend to make money -- essential for attracting investors and useful for your own reality checks. BPlans.com, run by PaloAlto Software (creators of Business Plan Pro software) offers dozens of articles, sample plans and templates to help you get going. This is one of the few sites that, while it does market a product (you need its software to edit a sample plan and use it for your own enterprise), delivers a slew of genuinely useful content for free. (And you can always simply re-create the sample plan using Word and Excel.)
Once you've launched your business, you'll have to keep financial records. But even if you use software such as Quickbooks, it's a good idea to understand how basic accounting works. Small-business consultant Dave Marshall's Bean Counter site features free tutorials on basic business accounting and bookkeeping.
And because so many aspects of business require presentation skills, it's useful to have a working knowledge of Microsoft's PowerPoint. About.com's Presentation Software site provides a Beginner's Guide to PowerPoint that gathers 11 tutorials to get you going.
Your business will need a Web site, too. You can pay someone a lot of money to create it, but if you would like to dig into the complexities of modern Web design, LearnWebbDesignOnline.com is a good place to start, with links to tutorials, videos and books on all aspects of site creation. Another resource is SiteGround, a Web hosting company that provides an impressive tutorials page for learning about both Web hosting in general and a wide array of specific applications for content management and site creation (WordPress, Dreamweaver and the like).
If you're interested in putting together a news site, J-Learning.org provides guidance on everything from blogging tools and multimedia creation to search-engine optimization (SEO) and legal issues -- all for free.
To help bring visitors to your site, you'll need to learn the basics of SEO. Search consultants SEOmoz' free Beginner's Guide is a good place to start.
Improve your tech skills
OK, time out for a little self-promotion. For general hardware upgrades, setup instruction and software tips, look no farther than PC World's own How-To page. Organized by category, there's an amazing wealth of guidance (in print, video and slide shows) for everything from swapping out a PC's processor to getting Microsoft Office to work better.
However, for professional in-depth training in specific applications, Lynda.com has established itself as the go-to place, with thousands of videos and tutorial files for hundreds of applications. It's not free, but if you're serious about learning a complicated application, its subscription-based fees are a good value. (Read PC World's recent review of Lynda.com.)Have you ever wanted to explore the mysteries of computer programming? You can find a slew of programming tutorials online, but I like British programmer Alan Gauld's Learning Program, an online version of a book he's written. It's not particularly slick, but he writes clearly and accessibly, and he uses Python, which experts tell me is a good programming language to start with.
The Internet has turned distance learning into a reality: Today, you can get all sorts of degrees and professional certificates through online courses. But not all online learning institutions are created equal. To avoid scams, start your search for Web-based higher education at The Sloan Consortium's Sloan-C Catalog.
It's a list of degree and certificate programs offered by regionally accredited institutions that have become consortium members (either because they've received grant support from the respected Alfred P. Sloan Foundation or through a peer-review process). You can search by discipline, type of degree or certificate, state, or institution name.
If you or someone you know wants to earn a GED (General Educational Development) credential (the equivalent of a high-school diploma), learn about the process from the organization that administers the GDE program, The American Council of Education.
You can't take the test online, but dozens of sites offer to prep you -- and many of them look pretty sleazy, so I'd stick with the council's links to practice tests and educational resources.
If you don't care about getting a degree and simply want to broaden your horizons, head over to YouTube EDU, a very cool YouTube subsite devoted to videos of interviews, courses and lectures from professors at top colleges and universities.
Learn a foreign language
It's easy to find sites that sell foreign-language instruction online. But here are some neat ones that don't charge for instruction and also offer audio clips:
Chinese (Mandarin): Chines-Tools.com, the English-language version of a site run by a native French speaker who has lived in China for six years, is a fantastic resource. It not only has audio clips (crucial since Chinese depends on tone and inflection as well as simple pronunciation), but also calligraphy instruction.French: About.com's French Language site provides lessons for beginners as well as interesting extras including sections on idiomatic expressions and typical Gallic gestures.
Italian: Oggie Domani (which means "today and tomorrow" in Italian) focuses on conversations in its lesson-based approach.
Russian: I found a couple of sites that seem to be duking it out for supremacy in free online Russian-language instruction: Russian Lessons.net and Learning Russian.net. Of the two, Learning Russian.net looks slicker, but Russian Lessons.net appears to have more resources.
Spanish: 123TeachMe offers Spanish lessons for beginners, advanced students and tourists (conversational Spanish).
Life skills
Some things you just can't learn in traditional classrooms. Real Simple has tons of how-tos for around-the house skills -- I like the Daily Quick-Cleaning Checklist, which promises to get your pad presentable in less than half an hour. For the truly domestically challenged, WikiHow has a page on how to make your bad. EmilyPost.com, the Web home of the Emily Post Institute, does get a little heavy-handed on selling books by the late doyenne of good manners and her descendants, but there are lots of free articles that provide advice on specific etiquette dilemmas.
And if you're looking to make dinner with whatever's in your refrigerator, simply enter the ingredients into the search fields of FoodNetwork.com, Epicurios or RecipeSource (formerly SOAR, or the Searchable Online Archive of Recipes). For really great how-tos (not to mention recipes and juried product and equipment ratings), consider investing $35 a year (less if you subscribe in print, too) in the online version of Cook's Illustrated, the ad-free Consumer Reports of cooking.
Need help with your finances? Motley Fool is one of the oldest and best sites to learn about investing and personal finance (and its discussion boards are great, too). If you're looking ahead to retirement, the Labor Department's Consumer Information on Retirement page answers a lot of questions on private pensions, 401(k) accounts and the like.
Have some fun
Learn to play a game: ChessDryad.com's How to Play Chess page will get you from learning the mechanics of the game to classic moves, with primers and flash animations. Veteran bridge author Richard Pavlicek has put his Bridge Basics textbook online for people wishing to learn the popular card game. For neophyte poker players, Charles Bloom has put up a Texas Hold'em primer.
For sports (or anything else highly physical and visual), you can't beat YouTube: For example, I found dozens of skateboarding how-tos, but the one I actually thought I could learn from was this unpolished but accesible effort credited to one "Eswolowski" and posted by a user named tevens22.However, not all sports stuff is on YouTube. Aspiring soccer moms and pops should check out How to Play Soccer, which not only teaches the rules of the game, but offers tips for parents who serve as coaches or spectators.
Showbiz stuff
Aspiring musicians, dancers and filmmakers can also find instruction online. SoYouWanna.com offers a guide for making low-budget movies.
Like to sing along in perfect harmony? ChoralWiki maintains a database of free choral sheet music. If your garage band needs help figuring out the guitar solo in Dire Straits' "Sultans of Swing," head to 911tabs, a very nifty search engine for tablatures (musical annotations showing fingerings for specific pop and rock songs). You can search by song and by instrument.