Facebook Webcam settings For Quality Video & Audio Calling

Facebook video calling is a great functionality added to FB and it is still under development. Zukerberg joined hands with Skype network to avail its users with not just a chat option anymore but real face-to-face video chat. I already mentioned in a post how to set up a video chat in Facebook and today we will be focusing more on how to improve the video and audio quality. If you are a user of Skype then you will find the tips extremely easy.

Install a Webcam

First you need a quality webcam which is a must. Choose a webcam that may make video calls in Hi-Definition i.e.  1280 x 720 pixel resolution at up to 30 frames per second. Put up some money and get a high resolution camera. It would cost less than $50. I would recommend that you buy one from Skype itself. See the varieties by clicking here. A good webcam will have a built-in microphone so you wont need to wear a bulky headphone to talk.

After you have purchased a camera simply do this:

1. Run the webcam software CD before plugging the webcam into USB cord..
2. Plug in webcam when prompted.
3. Now follow the easy instructions provided by software
4. Right click on webcam icon in system tray.
5. Click on "Check for updates".
6. Download and install updates.
7. Reboot computer.
8. You are done!

Your webcam is now installed and you can now take pictures with it and make videos on your computer but first we will need to download and install Skype video calling application for things to work. Now jump to next step

Facebook Settings For Best HD Display and Audio Quality

The video settings are the same as that for Skype. We will adjust our webcam to give best results in Skype. If it gives quality result on a Skype video call so will it on Facebook because both platforms use the same software.

1. Install Skype. If you already have it then skip this step.
2. In the upper right of the Skype window, click on Tools > Options > Video Settings. Click "Enable Skype video" and "Start my video automatically when I call". Use the dropdown box to select your specific webcam model.
3. Click "Save".

Now to make a Skype video call do this:

1. Click on a contact.
2. Turn on your speakers. 
3. Click on green button to initiate a call. Both ends will hear a ringing.
4. Accept the call and start the conversation
5. During the call ask your friend if your video is clear and voice sounds clear. If you he says yes then Bingo and if he said that the results are not so good then adjust your webcam audio volume and brightness control option. Play around the webcam options like contrast, zoom, brightness until and unless you hear a YES from your buddy.
6. Finally you are now all ready to make a clear, quality video call on Facebook.

You have successfully purchased and installed a camera and you also adjusted the best HD video settings. Now you must log into your Facebook account and confidently make a video call by following the easy steps mentioned on this tutorial:

• How to start and set up a video call?

I just hope this little help proves useful for most of you and you may enjoy the new FB fun. Stay safe and take care. Peace! :>

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Pakistani Politicians in the Eyes of Google

Google gives relevant search suggestions as you type a query. While searching for the biographies of some politicians living in Pakistan I suddenly came across some very interesting recommended search results. I almost got the same results at Google.com and Google.com.pk. Unfortunately, following are the most elected and followed politicians of Pakistan. I am sharing this post as a tech loving person and I am surely not related to any political party or promoting any political agenda.

PS: Please use the Facebook Like button above or Google+ button to spread it. 

Google Searches For Pakistani Politicians

Lets have a look at the Chief justice too, from whom the nation asks for Justice,

As you can see as we get down to the less popular figures the searches drop and suggestions no more exist. These were the most searched queries for the country where I belong. The searches are enough evidence to prove the hard work put by these figures... Most of them are bureaucrats and billionaires with assets ranging up to $10-$15 Billion dollars but despite that the country still cries of famine because not even the best of them pays Taxes. Just last month thanks to them I lost my brother.. May God help the nation.

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5 Best Ways to Make Money Online With Google+

Internet is the biggest market in todays world. Business offline is slowly turning into an online one and finding space in world wide web. With the invent of new services such as the new social networking site Google Plus, not only does the service provider benefits but even people like me and you can expect to earn a happy living online through it. Below I will be listing five possible ways of making money online through the newly born social networking bomb " The Google+"

Note: All these tips are not ordinary beating around the bush. If you have great business skills then you will find out your way online through this post InshAllah.

1) Develop a Google+ application

The most benefited and lucky people are the web developers in this case. If you have good programming skills then you must try hard to develop an app for G+ users that may benefit them in some regard. This app can be a game, Mozilla or Chrome Add-on, or even a self hosted API. Just visit the Mozilla and Chrome add-ons and extensions page and you will see how much downloads are made per day for those apps. Further you can submit your app to Android Market and Apple iOS store. The more downloads/hits your app receive the more backlinks, traffic and exposure your site will get. Always create a website for your app and then submit it at stores. Once your app becomes an entertaining and useful necessity for people then they will even donate you and companies will try to purchase the product from you. Remember how angry birds guys made their way.

2) Blog about Google+

My fundamental blogging principle is when a news is hot in the market then talk hot about it. You get traffic only if you understand the global demand of the people. Write updated content. When Christmas is near, write about Christmas when Ramadan is going on write about Muslim products and when Google+ is the talk of the year then talk about Google+. More blog traffic means more page views and consequently more blog revenue through the Ad impressions and clicks.

3) Create a Google+ Club

If you are a keen and loving social person then you can use your friend circles to earn some bucks. Try to increase number of your Google+ followers as much as you can and once you have surpassed the 500-1000 limit then you can sale out +1'd recommendations to web owners. Rankings widely depend on social networks and web owners can spend enough money to buy tweets, Facebook likes and Google+ recommendations to rank their content higher.

PS: You can find people selling 100 +1'ds at $200! Google it for yourselves.

4) Hire Developers & Advertise Your Google Plus Product

If you cant create or develop an app then hire a local programmer and invest some bucks on him so that he could create a user-friendly app for you. Not all people have a business sense or business mind and there are a lot of young teenagers who still have a lot of potential but lack business skills so you can hire them to work for you. People invest a one time money up to $500 and the next day when the product attracts traffic they earn in $200 per day. Just realize that you must not always run after profit and do not always try to fight with yourself that why can't you do something. If you can't do something then buy one who can do it and sale the talent!

After your App is ready, spend some bucks on Google Adwords or buysellads to attract some visitors especially bloggers to your product site. Exposure is important!

5) Create a Dedicated G+ Blog

Blogs work best when they are based on specific categories. A blog that speaks about everything like mine often suffer a lot (=p) If your new blog is solely based on Google+ customization tricks and apps and tools, then believe it or not, you can earn around $400-$800 per month with that blog if within a year it succeeded in receiving at least 5000 visitors per day.

Follow my post frequency tip and see the traffic boost effect within two months.

What do you think now?

Trust me it is not a day dreaming. Whatever I am sharing above is what I always wanted but due to university and responsibilities at home and current blog load I often can not. I am sure if you cant follow Tip#1,3 or Tip#4 then you can try out your luck at Tip#2 and Tip#5. I wish you may turn out to be successful web owners and web marketers and whatever you read may help you in reaching the stage you always dreamt of. Nothing is impractical when you think practical. Good Luck! :)

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How To Check Weather Conditions in Google Maps?

Google Maps or Google Earth now displays global weather conditions by displaying current temperatures and conditions around the globe. Just 4 days ago Google announced that Weather feature has been added to Google maps to let you plan your picnics and business travel trips easily. This feature is fully supported by weather.com that displays real-time weather conditions like rain, humidity and wind speed along with four day weather report.

How To See Weather Conditions of Your city?

Simply go to Google Maps Weather and type in your city name and location. Then click the cloud icon to open a weather report for that city. See the weather conditions of Karachi where I live:

Now if you look towards your right you will see Google Earth and Google Maps option. To view the weather in Google earth simply click the Google earth option and then you will be asked to install the Earth 3D plugin. It takes seconds to install it and then you can see a 3D view of your town and city.

Towards the right you will also see the Photos  option. Click it and a drop down menu will open with several options. You can even view imagery taken from around the globe by choosing the webcam option.

Finally Google tools are always fun to play with. You can play around this latest new feature to locate your friends and know more about their atmosphere conditions. Now of course you don't need to see infront of TV and wait for BBC or CNN weather news broadcast. Have Fun Googling! :)

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10+ Reasons Why you should buy a Custom Domain For Blogger

We all take the first step in initiating some work or business but as we move on we often make many mistakes unwillingly. Most bloggers start their blogging careers by signing up for a free blog hosting Content management system like Blogger.com but most of them don't realize the disadvantages of using a subdomain.

When you start blogging with free sub domains. All people that know you get familiar with your blog through that subdomain. As time goes on your rankings increase and you attract a handsome traffic then you realize that you are not receiving sponsorship and neither are you earning. But when you finally decide to purchase a custom domain you get confused with several questions in mind. You start thinking whether or not you will loose your rankings, PageRank , Alexa etc. So to answer all these questions carefully read the following reasons that tell you why should you buy a custom domain as soon as possible.

1. Reputation in Blogosphere

Blogs with .com domain are naturally respected more than blogs with sub domains such as .Blogspot.com. Link exchange with niche blogs or expanding your blogging circle is only possible when you join the .com club

Its feels really great when you share your Blog URL with your friends and family as opposed to the embarrassing lengthy BlogSpot domain :p

2. Most Advertising services do not accept subdomains

Services like buysellads do not accept subdomains which means that you are loosing 50% of revenue potential.

3. Fans & Subscribers Increase with Custom domains

People will follow you only when they know you offer something they don't have. But when they realize that you using a .blogspot.com domain, they will take a not-so-good impression of your content and would not bother following someone who is himself a free Resource user. Most people take .com or .org domains as commercial websites ran by teams or group of people and often subscribe them and follow them via Twitter, Facebook or Google friend connect. The reason is simple your domain is enough evidence that you are taking your work serious by spending some money on the service that you use and you are not just another free monger.

4. People Will Share and Bookmark Your blog posts

After giving a first good impression, people then happily share your post with friends and family. They will confidently bookmark it and visit it often to gain more knowledge because they know the work comes from an authority. This is one reason why subdomains do not play well on social networks whilst blogs with custom domains get fair amount of traffic from networks such as Stumbleupon, Digg, Facebook and Twitter.

5. PageRank increase slowly With Subdomains

Using a blogspot domain means that the chances of getting more backlinks is minimum for you. I personally don't link subdomains because often these blogs are created on temporary basis and once they are deleted the link on our blog becomes a dead/broken link which can effect our blog ranking. Therefore web owners prefer not to link them and even if they link such blogs, you will always find a nofollow tag attached to it.

6. You just need to buy a domain and not the Hosting

When you purchase a domain for your blogger blog, you then don't need to do anything else. Just sit back and relax. Fortunately Blogger hosts all your blog posts for free at its server contrary to what Wordpress does. That's one of the biggest reasons why people like me prefer blogger over Wordpress.

7. Rankings will Speedup

As more and more people notice your blog and bookmark and share it, your ranking on SERPs which is search engine results page will increase. the more Diggs, Stumbles and Likes you receive the better you go higher but all these social favour is possible only when you own your branded domain and not a free one which discourages readership and content sharing.

8. PageRank will stabilize On next PR update

Most people having PageRank greater than 2 often don't go for domain change because they fear that they will loose their PageRank. No doubt its true but you loose it only at temporary basis. Once Google robots locate all your redirected links, your rankings will be granted back to you on next PageRank update. My PR dropped to zero from 2 when I changed my domain but just after three months on next PR update cycle I got back the rank I owned.

9. You can Grow your business

Once your blog attracts traffic and readership, you can then offer guest posting, product reviews, sale banners, and earn day and night. Sponsors will advertise at platforms where they find quality traffic. Subdomain holders are always underestimated even if they have a plausible traffic strength.

10. It Costs Less Than $10 To Buy a domain!

UPDATE: Now you can buy a domain as low as $7.5 from Godaddy!  Read this post -> Blogger Domain Settings Simplified.

We spend so much on our stomach buy fast food stuff, spending around $50-$100 weekly. Can't we spare just $7-8 per year for an online business? I would not exaggerate this point any further.

What are you thinking now?

I have explained as much as I could with my limited scope of knowledge trying to prove the advantages of buying a custom domain as soon as possible. I wish that you may start a happy business online and may become a valuable input to the online media. You just need some hard work at initial stage and then work online will be no less than a fun. Happy blogging buddies. :))

You must be thinking how to buy a domain? This question will be answered on my next post. Kindly stay tuned.

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What is Custom Blogger Domain and Blogger Subdomain?

It is now important that you learn some basics in becoming a more established blogger in order to take your blogging career to the next level. People often use the free blog hosting service provided by Google blogger for 1-2 years and then they realize that they must change the irritating long Blogger subdomain into a professional looking custom domain. This week I will be focusing more on domain registration, DNS settings and the pros and cons of domain hosting. This post today gives brief knowledge of what exactly do people mean by custom and subdomains.

What is a Custom domain?

A domain is the web address of your blog or website. You are viewing this blog because you accessed it by typing the following URL in your browser,

www.MyBloggerTricks.com

A domain can end with any suffix such as  .com, .net or  .org etc.  Your Blog domain is your blog URL, the link that brings visitors and search engine robots to your blog.

What is a Sub Domain and Custom Domain?

Sub Domain:

A subdomain as the name itself says is a sub part of a domain. For example Google.com is the main domain for Google but since Google+ is a sub part of the services provided by Google then its web address takes the name plus.Google.com

Similar your free blogger blog is a service provided by Blogger and when you create a blog using their platform they attach their trademark in the form of a sub domain to your blog Name. If your blog title is named XYZ then it will appear like this,

XYZ.blogspot.com

If you are using a WordPress blog platform then it appears like the following,

XYZ.wordpress.com

Custom Domain:

A custom domain is your personally owned web URL that is your property and does not belongs to someone else or is a sub part of another service. When I purchased the MBT domain all my .blogspot.com were replaced with .com. This in other words means domain redirection. I just need to pay less than $10 per year for the domain hosting charges and that's all I pay from my pockets. All my files are stored for free at blogger.

Now the question is how to remove the .blogspot.com or .wordpress.com subdomain names from your blog and get a full fresh branded custom domain of your own? The answer is simple buy a domain from a good web hosting company. Read the next part of the tutorial to know why.

• 10+ Reasons Why you should buy a custom domain for Blogger

 Good News

UPDATE: Now you can buy a domain as low as $7.5 from Godaddy!  Read complete details on this post -> Blogger Domain Settings Simplified.

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Facebook Games: Drive a Car anywhere On Google Maps

Facebook Gaming app Mini maps uses a Google Maps format to let you drive a car anywhere in the world. You can have fun racing a car on any road or motorway in the world. The app uses flash technology to create a virtual car on Google Maps to improve your navigation skills for a selected area. Using simple arrow keys you can push on the accelerator to get your car going. The game lets you choose your destination point and also supports night vision mode if the area you selected is too dark. The game graphics are plausible if the location you selected is a developed country like USA or UK but if you choose a developing country like Somalia then satellite imagery for it is really poor. The zoom range would be minimum and roads will look fade.

To play this game on Facebook simply click the link below and allow the app to access your account. Once given the permission then you can choose a country and specific place and start choosing a car and track to get going! See the video below to get an idea,

Play Mini Maps Now!

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