THESUNRAISING

Monday, August 23, 2010

10 Ways Blogging Can Improve Your Life

1. Boost your confidence

Blogging’s easy and anyone can do it. With Wordpress or one of the other free blogging platforms and you can have your blog up and running in a few minutes. Anyone who thinks they don’t have the technical or writing skills will gain confidence once they set up a blog and see how easy it is to get started.

2. Have fun

People make jokes about bloggers like this one but I’m not ashamed to say I actually enjoy planning, researching, writing and maintaining my blog. It’s my baby and I can do anything with it I like. It’s not just me who enjoys it either, Chris Brogan wrote a post called I Love My Blog. Blogging really is fun and that’s probably why so many people are getting into it.

3. Be creative

We all need a creative outlet and blogging will allow you to explore, expand and experiment with your creative side. Keeping a blog isn’t just for writers either. You can use it to showcase your home improvement projects, paintings or herb garden and record and publish information via podcasts or video if those mediums hold more appeal for you.

4. Make friends

I didn’t start a blog to make friends and never expected to meet people through blogging but it just happens. Some blog visitors naturally relate to your blog content, they identify with you because of it and contact you. Thanks to my blog I’m in touch with people who I’d never have been in contact with otherwise. It still surprises me and the network of people you can engage with through blogging is a global one.

5. Improve your search engine ranking

If you have your own website adding a blog and updating it regularly could give you the edge over your competitors because the search engines prefer sites with new content. Of course you need to be writing about the topics your target audience will look for with the search engines to experience this benefit and you the more you write and the longer you keep updating your blog the greater the benefits.

6. Gain expert status

If you’re trying to establish a career or launch a new one maintaining a blog can position you as an expert. Having a website and blog is part of the package these days. Even if you want to get featured in the print press the first thing any journalist who wants to find out about you does is use the Internet. You want people who Google you to find your blog and not another website with information you have no control over.

7. Earn money

If you build up a sizeable readership you might be able to create a second income stream from your blog. Don’t give up your day job but if you’re passionate about your topic and believe it’s possible you may well be able to make it happen.

8. Plan better

A blog is a brilliant way to plan anything from a business to a book, a wedding to a wake. You could even use one a blog to plan a blog. Here’s how. Most Wordpress blogs have a categories section so if you’re collating information you can easily divide it into sections which make it easy for you to browse and locate information. You can then access that information any time from any place as long as you have access to a computer and the Internet. For example, a keen cook could use a blog to organise all her favourite recipes or a teacher could use it to keep ideas for lessons, organise lesson plans and keep notes on students. As a simple system for content management, blogs are invaluable.

9. Keep your mind active

Although you can easily start blogging right now by setting up a simple blog and telling people to visit it, most bloggers take a while to get good at blogging. There’s lots to learn and because the Internet is constantly evolving even professional bloggers who’ve been blogging for five years or longer are still learning new things about it. The good thing is that the learning curve isn’t too steep so you can set up a blog and learn as you go. The skills blogging will teach you such as writing, marketing, networking and computer literacy will come in useful in other areas of your life and constantly learning new things keeps your mind active and engaged.

10. Share your story

We all have a story to tell. At the very least blogging is a fabulous way of keeping a journal of your life, art, family, travels, hobbies or studies. It creates a permanent record you can look back on any time. Your kids might even find it interesting to look back on one day. Who knows, maybe the whole world will?

Blogging hasn’t just changed my life it’s enriched it. It’s changed the lives of well known bloggers like Chris Brogan, Leo Babauta, Brian Clark and Darren Rowse for the better too as well as countless other bloggers both professional and amateur. Are you ready to find out if it can improve your life?

How do you think blogging could benefit you?

Sunday, August 8, 2010

How to Convert Blu-ray to MKV

Problem

Blu-ray has great video and audio quality. But it's also discomfort to share Blu-ray video with others or watch on PC. So how to convert Blu-ray movie to MKV and keep the original quality?


Solution

1. Download and install any related softwares:MakeMKV, HandBrake, AnyDVD HD.

2. Launch MakeMKV. Choose your Blu-ray drive from the Source drop-down menu.



Hint: if MakeMKV can't read the Blu-ray Disc, you may need to run AnyDVD HD in the background. Please follow this recipe to learn how to decrypt Blu-ray disc: Remove Copy Protection from Blu-ray Discs.


3. Now choose the main movie, commonly the biggest title. Then keep one audio track as you like, AC3 DD Audio Track is quite well.



4.Click MakeMKV icon to save the output MKV file. It will need a lot of HDD space and take about one hour or so. You will see the converting process soon.



5.If you want to shrink the MKV video. Please run HandBrake. Load the MKV file from the Source->Video File. After that, choose the High Profile->Film Preset, then set the desired output file size and finally click Start to begin shrinking the MKV file.