Sound Bites Coaching Newsletter May, 2007 Issue# 39
By subscription only! Welcome to your next issue of "Sound Bites Product News". Sound Bites is a division of MSIncome.com. You are receiving this newsletter because you requested a subscription or purchased one of our products. This newsletter is only delivered once a month. Unsubscribe instructions are at the end of the email we sent you. Coaching for this month is Free Software I use
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IN THIS ISSUE
Contents
1. Thought of the Week - (Open to Possibilities) 2. From the Editors Desk - (Quentin Brown - Websites) 3. Special of the week - (Warrior Special Offer) 4. Coaching - (Free Software) 5. Tips and Tricks - (Free Audio Tracks) 6. Feature article - (Recording Skype) 7. What's New - (Create Software video) 8. Joke of the week - (Shaving)
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
" I am led this way in my life. I look for something and find something else. I then realize that what I've found is more suited to my needs than what I thought I was looking for. It's not serendipity - there are no coincidences. My heart and soul are open to what I need and what I should do." Miguel Diocuore
WELCOME FROM QUENTIN and the STAFF of Sound Bites & IM Training
Welcome to another issue of Sound Bites From the Desk of Quentin Brown Date: -
Reference: Website Pages.
This month our students compiled a business website for resale. The site uses the the affiliate process and they went out and got over 300 affiliate products and compiled them all into one website. You can have a look at http//www.500bucksamonth.com and you can download in the special of the week.
Lots of people think Internet marketing is hard but in reality there are only three things you need to master.
Text
Graphics
Media
The three skills you need are:
Copy and Paste
Find and replace
Insert
Develop these skills and there is pretty well nothing you cant achieve online.
Hello and welcome to this weeks coaching. A special welcome to all our new members.
This month we look at Free software I use.
This month I thought I would give you the links to a lot of the free software I use and hope it will help you with your online endeavours.
There are plenty of ways to get a cheap copy of Photoshop like auctions, academic versions for your children or just get an older copy. The reason I like Photoshop so much is they use a thing called Actions which are like automated macros that do all the work for you. We have two things to look at. One is record your own action and then load one of the thousand of free actions available.
These are some of the free software programs I use.
Ad-Aware is designed to provide advanced protection from known Data-mining, aggressive advertising, Parasites, Scumware, selected traditional Trojans, Dialers, Malware, Browser hijackers, and tracking components. With the release of Ad-Aware SE Personal edition, Lavasoft takes the fight against Spyware to the next level.
Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems.
Adobe® Reader® is free software that allows everyone from business professionals to home users to easily and reliably view, print, and search PDF files using a variety of platforms and devices.
avast! Home Edition is now free of charge for HOME users for NON-COMMERCIAL use. You can find more information here. If you are not a home user, or you use your computer for profit, the avast! Home Edition is not licensed for such use, and you are asked to use the commercial version - avast! Professional Edition.
To use the Home Edition, you should register it, however, after initial installation you have 60 days to trial the product (as with all avast! antivirus products) before you must complete registration. The registration process is very easy, and will take you only a couple of minutes.
Records activity from your screen into .avi or .swf movie files. It is ideal for demonstrating software, creating training, capturing a meeting, or recording buggy behavior.
The program is insanely easy to use, generates relatively small files, and records sound from a microphone or your system speakers.
Version 2.0 seems to be the last freeware version, and many copies disappeared from the internet as a training company seems to have taken a commercial interest in the technology. However, the license.txt of these full-featured versions provides for free use and distribution.
Welcome to the IBP - the Interactive Business Planner
The IBP is the first business planning software product designed specifically to operate on the World Wide Web. The IBP uses the capabilities of the Internet to assist entrepreneurs prepare a 3 year business plan for their new or existing business.
With the IBP, you will:
be guided through each section of your business plan using a question and answer format;
learn definitions and tips, and view sample business plans to help you to write your own plan;
have financial projections prepared for you, based upon the information you provide; and
use the power of the Internet to assist you in researching your business plan.
Good Keywords is a free Windows software for finding the perfect set of keywords for your web pages. Knowing the right keywords to target is very important because your site should provide what people are searching for.
Good Keywords is completely free. No registration, no payments, no nag screens! It is a small 500Kb download, digitally signed and safe to install. We don't even ask for your email address.
This is a color finder that allows you to choose custom colors and save, load, and retrieve specific colors from any area on your screen.
Unfortunately this company does not seem to be around anymore but it is a great little tool. You wont really know till you want to find a special color.
Paint Shop Pro - No longer supported. This version lasts forever
Paint Shop Pro's origins were as a humble graphic file converter and this remains its big strength. 33 file formats are supported including all the bitmap standards and a number of vector ones, such as WMF and CDR, for good measure. The list has been expanded and brought up-to-date particularly through the support for Web page graphics such as the GIF 89a and PNG. Welcome reminders of the old days include the batch conversion facility, a godsend if you regularly have to convert multiple files, and the simple capture utility which is generally sufficient for producing screenshots.
Convert to PDF from any application by simply 'printing' to the PrimoPDF printer - it wouldn't be easier! Within minutes, you can create high-quality PDFs by converting from Word, Excel, PowerPoint and virtually any other printable file type.
FREE PDF Converter - not a trial version
Print to PDF from virtually any application
Optimize PDF output for print or screen
No annoying pop-up ads - no catch!
High-quality PDF creation
PDF, or Portable Document Format, is a unique, cross-platform file format that allows for precise representation of documents. By converting to PDF, you can rest assured that your users will see your documents exactly as you intended, with all the fonts, formatting, and graphics intact. Rapidly becoming the de facto standard for electronic document distribution, PDF also enables you to add features like security, bookmark navigation, web optimization, and more.
UltimateZip is an easy to use archive utilty. With it's flexible user interface, UltimateZip is easy to use for first-time users and offers many features for power users.
Support for: ZIP, RAR, ACE, BH, CAB, JAR, LHA (LZH), GZIP, TAR, BZIP2, ARC, ARJ, XXE, UUE formates.
Support for large ZIP files (bigger than 4 GB).
Advanced File security with 256-Bit AES encryption.
Powerful Self-Extracting ZIP files in 3 Languages.
Multi-disk spanning and Splitting for Zip archives.
Windows shell integration.
Checkout and Install features.
Powerful backup feature.
Repair corrupted ZIP files.
MS GIF Animator is an excellent FREEWARE program. You can very easily make animated GIF files and view them as well using typical VCR controls. This is a must have if you want to put your presentations in motion!
The pdf 995 suite of products - Pdf 995, PdfEdit 995, and Signature 995 - is a complete solution for your document publishing needs. It provides ease of use, flexibility in format, and industry-standard security- and all at no cost to you.
This is the one I downloaded for a video shoot I am doing. Low Res Version
Stock20.com creates high quality music for media production. This can be used for videos, podcats or any production. If you create a free account, they will give you a $7 store credit (which will get you one free song).
If you use my referral link (below) we can both get an extra $7 in free music--you'll get a total of $14.
Here's how: Click this link, then create a free account (it takes about a minute):
Note: You can be assured that Stock20.com will not give away your info. They send out one e-mail per month when they release their new songs.
FEATURE ARTICLE - Recording with Skype
How to Record Skype Conversations: Tools, Resources, Tips posted by Amit Agarwal
Skype is probably the most widely used Internet Phone service for conducting telephonic interviews, panel discussions, conference calls, recording podcasts or plain voice chatting. To date over 190 million people have downloaded the Skype program.
Though Skype doesn't provide native support for recording voice conversations yet, you can easily record Skype Call Sessions using third-party add-ons or hardware devices or even with software that already exists on your computer. The Skype Phone calls are recorded to regular audio files like MP3, WAV or Windows Media which can edited and shared with friends like regular media files.
How to record Skype Calls ?
Let's look at some of the more popular Skype add-ons and resources here for recording Skype Calls and SkypeCasts:
Skype Recording Options for Windows
KishKish SAM KishKish SAM Skype plug-in records Skype conversations automatically once the incoming Skype call is answered by you. In an Outgoing Skype call you will need to wait until the call is answered by the other party. The voice recording can be stopped or resumed at any time during the call. [$15.95] [Download]
PowerGramo Recorder for Skype PowerGramo Free version is a good option if the Skype conversation involves only two persons. The Skype call can be of any duration and will be recorded in the OGG or WAV format. The por version supports Multiple-call people conference recording. PowerGramo will work on older versions of Skype include Skype 1.1 [Free/$19.95] [Download]
HotRecorder for VoIP Hot Recorder for VoIP is a popular Skype Call recording plugin for the PC. Not just Skype, you can use HotRecorder to record voice conversations from any IM client including Google Talk, AOL AIM, Net2Phone, Yahoo! Messenger or Firefly. The audio recordings can be saved to WAV, OGG or MP3 files. The HotRecorder Voicemail feauture will automatically answer Skype conversations for you. [$14.95] [Download]
Pamela 2.0 Professional While the basic version of Pamela is free and supports voice and video answering machine, the Pro version supports skype voice recording and can also record Skypecasts, Skype Video and Skype Chats. You can also make a local playable copy of your Skype Voicemail with Pamela Skype addon. Pamela also generates HTML template code for posting the recorded Skype audio and video calls as podcasts or blog entries. [$24.95] [Download]
Total Recorder for Skype Total Recorder is designed for capturing any streaming audio-video content from the web. Total Recorder records streaming audio directly from systems like Real Player, Windows Media Player, QuickTime and WinAmp. The previous versions of TotalRecorder had issues with recording Skype sessions and CPU usage but they are all sorted now. TotalRecorder is a favorite with Skype users. The resulting recordings may be saved as wav, wma, mp3 or Ogg Vorbis audio files. [$17.95] [Download]
MixCast Live Designed for podcasters to record interviews over Skype. Not sure if it is supported anymore. [$12.00] [Download]
Skylook Business/Home for Microsoft Outlook Skylook Business or Home version installs a Skype toolbar in Outlook from can directly place Skype calls to your Outlook contacts and record Skype calls as MP3. Skylook also adds Skype answering machine feature and Voice Mail features to Outlook inbox. The audio files can be saved just like your other email messages. Skylook will also also record Skype IM Chats straight into Outlook as other mailbox items. [$49.95/$34.95][Download]
PrettyMay PrettyMay is another voice recording add-on popular among Skype users. PrettyMay is absolutely free though the maximum recording time is limited to 30 minutes. PrettyMay can record both Skype incoming calls and outgoing calls in either .wav or .mp3 audio formats. [Free] [Download]
Recording Skype Calls on a Mac
If you are a Mac User, Audio Hijack or WireTrap Pro are probably the best options to record Skype Calls or Skypecast.
Using a technique called Hijacking, Audio Hijack Pro will allow you to record any application's audio including Skype, podcasts, vidcasts, DVDs or sound from streaming internet audio-video. While Audio Hijack only records the audio, Audio Hijack Pro comes with effects to enhance the audio. Supports audio recording for Skype Voice Chats and iChat. [$16/$32] [Download]
WireTrap Pro is from the developers of Snapz Pro, which is a very popular screencasting app on Mac. Like Audio Hijack, Wire Trap can record audio from any running applications, as well as from any microphone, line-in, headset or radioSHARK. WireTap Pro will save your digital recordings in the either .mp3, AAC, QuickTime, and AIFF file formats. [$19.00] [Download]
Ecamm Call Recorder is an add-on for Skype which automatically transforms your Skype calls into QuickTime movies. Call Recorder can be used for recording remote lessons, interviews and podcasts. Calls are saved as QuickTime movies with the local and remote side of the conversation on different tracks. [$12.95] [Download]
Hardware Options for Recording Skype Call Sessions
The AU-600 Skype Gateway which allows you to make/receive Skype calls from your existing corded, cordless or cellular phone can also be used to record Skype conversation. You can choose to either record all calls automatically, or you can begin and stop recording during a call, directly from your phone's keypad. Call recordings are saved as .wav files on your computer. Requires Windows. [$53.95]
Flash Phone F3K is another Skype device from Mplat that has a flash memory card and a USB sound card. The device can be plugged to the USB port of any machine and let you make VoIP calls using Skype, Google Talk, MSN Messenger but not Yahoo! Messenger. FlashPhone comes with Voice recorder and an answering machine. Also see FlashPhone F1K for Skype [$24.90]
A PDF document titled "Skype + Podcast Recorder = SkypeCaster" has instructions to building your own Skype recording studio using Windows Sound Recorder and Virtual Audio Cable, a Windows WDM multimedia driver. The author uses this to record Podcasts using Skype. You can also use this approach with Audacity or Adobe Audition for recording and editing the quality of voice. VAC needs no audio card; it is a "virtual audio card" itself. You need two instances of Skype running on the same computer. See screenshots. [Skype Journal]
Another Do-It-Yourself approach to record Skype Conversations is explained by TDavid. It requires two computers (Skype Recorder and Skype Client), one has Skype running and the other one with line-in capability. Connect one end of male computer to LINE-IN on second computer and attach to the speaker out on the computer that is running Skype. Now on the second computer, set record properties to LINE-IN. How to record a Skype conversation
Tips on recording Skype Conversation:
» Let the other parties know that you are recording them and obtain their permission to record. This is a law in some states.
» Skype will save the voicemail locally after you've played it but it uses some odd format. To convert the skype dat sound file to MP3 or WAV, use HotRecorder mentioned above.
» Doug Kaye has a nice illustration of DIY skype recorder without an external mixer.
» If you plan to use the SkypeCaster method, this Skype discussion thread will be prove useful.
» Before placing Skype call or recording conversations, it's always nice to test your Skype Sound Setup.
» Skype is favorite utility for recording podcast interviews. Here's an excellent tutorial on how to record Podcasts with Skype on Mac or Windows. It uses the software discussed above.
Update: Download Skype Toolbars for Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Outlook or Thunderbird.
WHAT'S New - Free stuff Video on Software
JOKE OF THE WEEK - Shaving
A man enters a barber shop for a shave. While the barber is foaming him up, he mentions the problems he has getting a close shave around the cheeks.
"I have just the thing," says the barber taking a small wooden ball from a nearby drawer. "Just place this between your cheek and gum."
The client places the ball in his mouth and the barber proceeds with the closest shave the man has ever experienced.
After a few strokes the client asks in garbled speech. "And what if I swallow it?"
"No problem," says the barber. "Just bring it back tomorrow like everyone else does."
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