I have to be honest. When I heard that Google was shutting down Google Reader as of July 1st, I got down in the fetal position in the corner of my office and WEPT!

Ok…

It wasn’t quite that dramatic, but I, like so many of you, was pretty darn upset. I use Google Reader a LOT. It’s a very important part of my business. Google Reader is often where I find great post to share with my following as well as get great ideas for a new post or even ideas that I want to implement into my own online business.

When I heard that the Death-star was going to annihilate my precious reader, I went out in search the best Google Reader equivalent. What I found was a tool I like even better called Feedly!

Feedly is a great reader and It’s a lot more functional then Google Reader and has some great features. According to a poll on Lifehacker, Feedly was favored by the masses, grabbing 65% of all the votes.

So what does Feedly have to offer you ask?

• First Feedly syncs with Google Reader and will bring in all of your subscriptions and your starred post. Feedly plans to use It’s own back end once Google Reader is finally shut down for good. You may want to get this done before It’s to late and you loose all the beautiful feeds you have collected over the years. I’m considering starting from scratch to eliminate all the JUNK in my reader.

• Feedly also provides multiple ways to view your feeds. Magazine and Mosaic are a couple of my favorite options.

The post Feedly is the BEST Google Reader equivalent appeared first on easytechsite.

If your considering starting your first WordPress blog but you don’t want to have to pay a lot for a host to get started, then I would recommend starting with Godaddy. They are not the best host when you start having more then a hundred visitors a day, but they are a great and AFFORDABLE starting point.

With Godaddy you can pay month to month for your host instead of most host who charge you for a year up front. Starting with Godaddy is a great way to give your first blog a test run and learn.

Below is a video that I created to help guide you through installing WordPress on a Godaddy host.

I stared out on Godaddy myself and it was over a year before I was in need of a dedicated host for my websites.

Here are a few links to help you with getting started with your WordPress blog that may prove to be very helpful. Some of the videos are a couple years old but they are still relevant and should help you tremendously if you are a beginner.

• How to install a WordPress plugin 
• 15 WordPress plugins that will change a bloggers life
• How to add Amazon products to your WordPress blog 
• How to add Google ads to your WordPress blog 
• How to add Google analytics to your WordPress site 

The post Starting your first WordPress blog, using Godaddy as your host appeared first on easytechsite.

AT&T Plans To Discontinue The HTC First And Ship All Remaining Units Back To HTC [Rumor] | Cult of Android.

Facebook Home hasn’t been doing too hot lately. First there was the news that Facebook Home has been a dud in the Google Play store, and now we’ve just learned that AT&T is already going to discontinue the HTC First.
The HTC First was the first and only smartphone to feature Facebook’s new Home interface baked into the OS. The smartphone just debuted on AT&T last month, but it’s already getting tossed out of stores.
BGR reported this morning that AT&T’s sales of the HTC First has been so disappointing that AT&T will be removing the device from stores and shipping all unsold inventory back to HTC.
The exact timeframe of the discontinuation of the device isn’t clear at this time. AT&T still has to fullfill its contractual obligations to display the First in its stores, but once that period is over you’ll have missed your only chance to buy the first Facebook smartphone.
Ominous signs about the HTC First’s future floated over the Internet last week as AT&T announced the price of the phone would drop to just $0.99 a few weeks after its launch. Reviews of the HTC First didn’t hold up too well either, so we’re not surprised the phone is being discontinued, but it’s shocking how fast it happened.

Read more at http://www.cultofandroid.com/27450/att-plans-to-discontinue-the-htc-first-and-ship-all-remaining-units-back-to-htc-rumor/#E8ZDbP8RCcfJR6S5.99

The post AT&T Plans To Discontinue The HTC First And Ship All Remaining Units Back To HTC [Rumor] | Cult of Android appeared first on easytechsite.

To be honest I’ve done a horrible job of getting the most out of my Twitter profile. As I rarely tweet anything and I open Twitter even less then I tweet. Most of my tweets are done for me by my buffer account.

Buffer is a pretty great app that makes sending out updates to your social profiles a breeze, but it also makes you lazy.

How can I put this in a way that really comes across as clear? I have really SUCKED at using Twitter over the years. I’m a terrible TWEETER.

When I was a kid, I played a lot of sports. From the time I was about 7 years old I was involved in a sport and playing competitively year round. I noticed as I would transition out of one sports season into another, I would have to go back to the basics to find my groove again and be able to compete. I would have to re-learn the FUNDAMENTALS.

With so many social media platforms out there it can get really challenging to keep up on them. Sometimes we forget the basics and we start to see a drop off in performance with that particular platform. When that happens it’s important to get back to the fundamentals. That is what I’m having to do with Twitter.

Twitter has been that platform that has just been average for me. I haven’t gotten a lot of success from it. I have some engagement and a few retweets here and there, but nothing to get excited about. Reading these tips has renewed my interest in Twitter and I’m hoping they will do the same for you.

I came across these 5 Twitter tips when I was reading the Entrepreneur blog and I just couldn’t resist sharing them with all of you!

Best days to tweet 

Turns out the best days to send out a tweet is actually Saturday and Sunday. I must admit that I was a little surprised by that one. Wednesday and Thursdays are the worst days for engagement on Twitter. I’m going to start saving my best tweets for the weekend and avoid tweeting anything important on Wednesday and Thursday.

Best times to tweet

The best time to tweet is between 8am – 7pm. You will get 30% more engagement from your audience during those time verses any other time slot. Not surprised. I don’t typically worry about Twitter early in the morning or late at night.

Length of Tweet

You get 17% more engagement if you keep your tweet under 100 characters. No one reads really long and ugly tweets.

Hashtags

You get twice the engagement when you use hashtags. You will see a 21% increase when using one or two hashtags, while you will see a decrease to 17% when you use more then two hashtags. Don’t be a hashtag maniac! Keep it at one or two.

How to amplify your engagement 

Want more retweets? You need to ask for them and you need to spell it out. If you type “RT”, your retweet rate will increase by 10 times. If you type in the word RETWEET then you will see a retweet rate of 23 times. I don’t know about you, but I’ll be spelling out the word RETWEET from here on out.

Notice how I even typed in my website incorrectly!! Yes I actually sent that tweet. I told you I SUCK at Twitter, but that’s all about to change.

It’s time for me to get back to the fundamentals. How about you? What’s your opinion on these tips?

Do me a favor and TWEET this post out. You have to now because I ASKED you too.

The post 5 Twitter Tips you really NEED to know appeared first on easytechsite.

Chris Hadfield sings Bowies Space Oddity in ISS farewell | Crave – CNET.

How do you top months of amazing photos, demos, and tunes done aboard the International Space Station? If you’re Chris Hadfield, you cover David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” in a showstopping finale.
On the eve of his return to Earth, the Canadian astronaut released a beautifully done video of himself singing the 1969 classic.
Mixed with the help of staff at the Canadian Space Agency, musician Emm Gryner, and others, the cover features a somber piano intro and modified lyrics that reference the Soyuz capsule that will return Hadfield to Kazakhstan.
When the mustachioed commander sings “I’m floating in a most peculiar way” while actually floating up in space, Hadfield wins the Internet, as one commenter suggests.

Click the link at the top to read more

The post Chris Hadfield sings Bowies Space Oddity in ISS farewell | Crave – CNET appeared first on easytechsite.

Magic: The Gathering has been around for more than a decade. I remember playing MTG in the back room of a local comic shop in Victoria when I was younger. I’d ride my bike down to the shop each Saturday, pay $1 to get access to the game room, and play until the early evening. It was a weekly ritual, and one that comic shops are still making available to customers today.

When playing MTG, it’s easy to lose track of exactly what cards you actually have. For some, the number goes well into the thousands. Building a new deck means having to figure out what you have before you do. How do you keep these things organized? What if you’d like to get a rough estimate on the value of your collection? There’s an app for that, and it works on OS X, iOS, and Android.

Decked Builder is an extraordinary application that combines basic inventory and data export features with updated pricing information from a number of vendors that rate your cards’ value from low to high so you aren’t caught off guard during your next trade.

How to Inventory Your Magic: The Gathering Cards – LockerGnome.

The post How to Inventory Your Magic: The Gathering Cards – LockerGnome appeared first on easytechsite.

A new Chrome extension lets Spotify users permanently download any song currently available from the streaming music service, a massive slip-up that could quickly upset record labels and music publishers. As noted by Dutch website Tweakers, the Downloadify tool appears to take advantage of nonexistent encryption in Spotify’s web player, which the company launched in beta back in November. By simply installing the extension — freely available in the Chrome Web Store — and starting to play a song, users will download a full, DRM-free MP3 file of the track.

Spotify allows its premium users to “store” music files locally so long as they keep their monthly subscription active, in turn providing royalties to artists and industry groups. But thanks to this non-sanctioned “tool,” any customer can ransack Spotify’s 20 million-plus song catalog. The Verge recommends against our readers using Downloadify; its very purpose should be enough to have you questioning its legality. We’ve reached out to Spotify and Google for more information.

Update: Downloadify has been removed from Chrome’s Web Store, but is still available via a repository at GitHub. A Google spokesperson wouldn’t discuss Downloadify specifically, but says the company removes apps “that do not comply with our terms of service.” Spotify says it’s aware of the issue with its web player and is “currently working on a fix.”

Spotify's nightmare realized: Chrome extension allows MP3 download of any song | The Verge.

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Nokia Windows Phone alliance blasted by irate investors | CNET UK.

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I‘ve put together a list of 4 great ways for beginners to grow an online following. When your just getting started online, trying to figure out what avenues to get started with first can become very overwhelming. There are so many Internet marketing sites, blogs, videos, and training materials all claiming that their method is the best.

Here is my list of 4 great ways for beginners to grow an online following

2) YouTube – YouTube has been another great success for me. I have videos out there that are very basics but very informative with over 50k views that continue to make ad revenue and drive traffic to my site that are 2 years olds. Video may be the most important media to be using in todays market.

Don’t take on too much to fast

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Write a Guest Post for EasyTechSite

Writing guest post is one of the most productive ways to get your name out there and build an audience. It also allows you to get traffic to your website. EasyTech currently gets thousands of monthly views and is quickly growing. In order to continue this growth I will have to allow for guest post writers as I am unable to generate enough articles on my own. EasyTechSite will be taking 1 – 2 guest post per month starting in January!

When you write a guest post for EasyTech you will get to include one back link to your own blog or website. I will also create an Author Card that will be included at the bottom of the post that includes your bio, photo, and links to your Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus accounts and personal blog.

Author Bio will appear like this:

Your blog post will be promoted through my social networks. Those networks include Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Pinterest and LinkedIn

The current rules for writing a guest post is listed below:

• Must be content related to online business or technology training.
• Must include a post image and one image for the content.
• You may and I encourage that you include one back link to your website.
• No links to sales pages or affiliate products unless pre approved by me.
• Must be well written and edited. ( I rarely can find time to even edit my own post, I will not be able to find an editor for a guest post )
• Article must be no less then 500 words. Prefer 700 – 900 word count.
• No vulgar language will be approved

If your post is approved then it will usually be posted and live with in two business days. I will also email you to let you know that your post has gone live.

If you would like to write a guest post for EasyTech then please contact me at shawn@easytechsite.com. Write Guest Post in the subject line. I look forward to seeing what creative and inspiring content that you have to offer.

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