ツ - Tsu: A Social Network that You Can Monetize

A few weeks ago, I made a post about a social network called Ello with the selling points of being simplistic and having no advertisements. This time, I will be discussing a new social network where advertising is one of its major features. This social network is Tsu (and if you are knowledgeable of Japanese Katakana, you will know that the kana for tsu looks like a smiley face, ツ).

Unlike most social networks, Tsu shares its ad revenue with its users. On Facebook, most users post pictures and original content just to share things with friends and waste time; on Tsu, you can do the same thing, but you will get paid for bringing additional friends into your network and for any ad revenue that your posts and pages would bring in. Instead of using all of your time making money for Zuck, you can see some of that money fill your coffers.

Tsu is not the first social network that has allowed users to directly monetize for building a network, however. Back in the heyday of MySpace, there was a network that I joined that promised money if one could build a network of friends. I have forgotten the name of this site, and I am sure it is defunct now since its user interface was cumbersome and it was highly disorganized (similar to MySpace back in the day). On the other hand, Tsu has a very professional layout and an easy-to-use interface. I am sure that given enough time, it will grow to be a viable social platform. I do not know much about its SEO value for the time being, but one could still use it to market their business and make a little bit extra on the side.

Unlike Ello, I have decided to jump in and join Tsu since it seems to be a legit network where users can profit rather than another dump for hipster-liberals to post their social justice memes. For the time being it is invitation-only, but your boy has you covered. If you want to join, you can join through my invitation. I hope to see you there.

How to Prevent Being Hit by CryptoWall 2.0

CryptoWall 2.0 is a trojan that encrypts data files found on infected computers, rendering the data useless. If the data can be found in a place that is given a drive letter, then it is at risk of being encrypted, whether it is on a network drive, connected external hard drive, USB thumb drive, or other removable media (CD-ROMs and DVDs are safe due to the read-only nature of these media). The trojan targets files in an array of file types, generally Excel files, Word documents, pictures, and audio files (when I was hit by it, the .PNGs in my encrypted folders were spared, but the .JPGs and .GIFs were lost), and when it is finished encrypting, three files with instructions on how to get your data back are left in effected folders. To make matters worse, it deletes shadow volume copies so a system restore will not work to recover your data.

Since the only sure way to get your files back (at the time of this writing) is to pay a fee to the bad guys to decrypt your data, CryptoWall 2.0 falls under the category of ransomware. It is scary to know that our important information, precious memories, and even livelihoods can be held hostage and lost forever if we refuse to pay up. I was hit by this devastating trojan, but I refuse to pay them a penny. Luckily for me, I followed my own advice and have backups of my most important data, so I only lost a few files of any circumstance. However, I would like to do my best to prevent this from happening again since restoring files is time-consuming. After doing some research, I've come up with a few ways to stop CryptoWall before your computer is infected by it. Some of this is common sense, and there are no guarantees of safety, but these methods can offer a bit of security.

Do Not Open Strange E-Mail Attachments

One of the most common ways that CryptoWall spreads is through e-mail attachments. These attachments may appear to have file extensions like .PDF or .DOC, but in reality they are executable files that will install the trojan on your computer. Only open attachments from people that you trust, and even then, scan them for viruses.

Use AdBlocker

It is unfortunate to have to say this since some people make their livings off of advertisements, but blocking ads may be essential for the time being in order to prevent CryptoWall infestation. I never open strange e-mail attachments, and I always scan attachments with my anti-virus program (which I make sure to keep updated), but CryptoWall still got through. It has been reported that this trojan can tacitly install itself using exploits in Adobe Flash Player, and it has been transmitted through advertising networks.

Install CryptoPrevent

CryptoPrevent by FoolishIT adds a layer of protection to your computer by disallowing the installation of CryptoPrevent, as well as preventing programs from running from the folders where the trojan is typically installed. I would advise you to download and install this utility, especially if you do not elect to block ads (those of us that make our livings, or at least a bit of extra spending cash from ads thank you).

Do Not Leave Physical Backup Devices Connected

If you keep physical backups of your data on external hard drives or other storage media, then you should not leave them attached to your computer after you are finished saving your files to them. Should you choose to do otherwise, CryptoWall might encrypt your backup copies, and if that happens, you're screwed. The same applies to online storage such as DropBox if you have your folders synced. Luckily, most online storage services allow users to rollback to previous versions, so you would be able to go back to the non-encrypted versions of your files.

Hopefully these tips can help you to prevent being infected by CryptoWall. Protect yourself at all times and keep your data safe!

When Should You Ping Your Blog?

If you run a blog and you want to garner more traffic, then you will want to ping your blog. Pinging your blog lets services such as blog directories, news sites, and search engines know that it has (supposedly) been updated, and instead of waiting for webcrawlers to take an indefinite amount of time to find your content, you let these services know that you have some fresh posts right away. With sites such as Pingler and Pingomatic, one can effectively send pings to hundreds of services in a matter of seconds. Since it is so easy, you should ping your blog multiple times a day, right?

If you ping your blog too many times in a single day, you may end up getting blacklisted, effectively killing your traffic flow. Instead, you should try to limit your pings to a maximum of once a day, and only if you have recently updated your blog. In addition, in order to maximize your blog's exposure, I would advise you to switch up the pinging site that you use from time to time.

Pinging your site won't necessarily bring in millions of unique views right away, but if done correctly, you are sure to see a spike in traffic a few hours after pinging your blog.