You can turn your portable computer or even your desktop computer into a full featured Kindle. It may not look like a Kindle but it can let you read, bookmark and annotate your eBooks.

Is it sounding too good to be true?

Well it’s not and it is here to stay! Why would Amazon want to limit their sales to only people who have shelled out the dough for a Kindle?

So with out further ado here it is in all it’s glory – the Kindle for PC, with the Mac version on it’s way!

Let’s take a look at how to download, install and start reading eBooks. Your Kindle for PC will also let you download and pay for books as well. But as we cover free software here we will focus on some free eBook downloading and reading.

I started by downloading the software from here. After the download is completed, run the installer and install the application. Then you will see a screen that looks like this:

You will need to give them a email account or your Amazon account’s email address to speed things along. And you will HAVE to have a credit card on the account. You will not need to buy anything but a credit card is required.

Fill in the required information:

Go ahead and click the register button. That will bring you to your Kindle home screen. On it in the upper right hand corner you will see this:

If you already have purchased or have books in your account they will show up here. If not, hit the shop in the Kindle store button next to the Menu button. From here you can buy or download free books. The ones on the home page are their best sellers and cost money!

But let’s search for some free books. Do you see the search box at the top? Go ahead and hit the go button:

That will return all the results in Kindle Land. Then when you have your search results lets sort them by price lowest to highest like so:

If you see something that catches your eye grab it. If not search for your favorite old world authors. I chose Charles Dickens as you can see below:

Then I went ahead and clicked on Oliver Twist, circa mid 1800’s. To download it click on the Buy now with 1 click orange button. It will deliver to your PC version of the Kindle by default. If you have other devices select the appropriate one.

Then you will see a thank you screen. Next go back to your Kindle screen and hit the sync and check for new items (F5) button as you can see below:

That will get the ball rolling…

Yeah! I have a book! Click on it to start reading…

The right and left buttons will turn your pages. And your other options are bookmark and note. Here is what the text looks like:

Hit the bookmark button to store a bookmark. To retrieve it hit the show notes and marks button:

You can add notes by dropping down that box to say notes and type away! Do you love it or hate it?

We would love to hear how you consume eBooks. Let us know in the comments!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Who Needs The Amazon Kindle When You Have A Netbook? (26)
• How To Remove DRM from MOBI and PRC eBooks (112)
• Offer Your Readers A RSS To PDF Option With Feedbooks (3)
• Mobipocket – An Awesome ebook Reader Which is Free (14)
• Make Your Own eBooks with eBook Hood (3)

I haven’t quite settled on what service I’ll use as my main advertising platform but I am going to partake in the Amazon Affiliates program to build a store for my blog, filled with products my readers may be interested in. So I’m going to show you how to add a good Amazon eStore to your blog or site.

Firstly, let me set one thing straight. Your readers aren’t going to read a laptop review you did and suddenly make the decision to buy it in your store. It just doesn’t happen. Sorry. So the answer to the question on the tip of your tongue is no, you won’t earn 15% on a $2,000 laptop from your store.

I want you to to sit down with a pen and paper with your blog open in your browser and really ask yourself – what would I buy having read this blog?  If it’s a how-to blog with cool homemade gadgets, maybe you could have a store that sells cheap tools, LEDs, wiring etc. That people will actually buy because they want to build a project on your blog. If you run a gardening blog, rare seeds or weird tools would be good picks. All of this boils down to three rules.

1. Is it under $10? If not, most people won’t make a split-second decision and buy from YOUR store. They’ll think about it and then buy direct later.
2. Can they get it around the corner from their home? If they can walk into WalMart and get the item today they won’t buy from you. Try to add items you’d only find on the internet.
3. Would you buy it? Honestly – ask yourself. Having read a blog post about a product, would you really want that product enough to buy it?

Ensure each and every one of your products answers yes to these questions.

Now join the Amazon Associates program. It will take them a few days to verify your blog is worthy of bearing their brand. If you post more than once a week and the content isn’t questionable then you should get through no problem.

On the affiliates homepage, click ‘Create aStore‘. This will display the page below.

Click ‘Add Category‘ to add a new section to your store. For example, I entered ‘Electronics’. Then, click on the ‘Add products’ button seen on the right. This will take you to the page below.

Here, simply browse through the products clicking ‘Add‘ next to the products you want in your store. I encourage you to consult the three rules mentioned above while doing this. When you have all the categories and products added, click ‘Continue‘ to bring you onto the design and customization phase.

In the screenshot above you can see the page where you can customize how your store will look. To the left there is a sidebar where you can change the colours of the different aspects of your store using the dropdown menus or, for the more tech savvy, the colour codes (ex. #FFFFFF for white etc…)

You can also name your store and add a logo. When adding a logo, you’ll be required to enter in an image URL. A good idea is to make this the logo of your blog if you have one. Simply right click on the your blog’s logo and select ‘Copy Image URL‘. Then paste it into the appropriate box on the ‘Customize Store’ page. Then click ‘Continue‘.

The next page is further customization of your store. This is merely placement of the sidebar and selecting which widgets (advertisements) you want to appear in your store alongside your ads. You earn revenue from these as well. When you’re finished click ‘Finish & Get Link‘.

You’re then presented with three options.

The first is the most basic. You can simply copy the link to your store and place a button on your blog/site. Preferably in the main menu section. When a reader clicks this button they’ll be redirected to your store on Amazon.

The second is to embed your store using an inline frame. An inline frame is kind of like a mini browser within your website. To do this, select that option along the top of the page. Then, copy all of the HTML code that is presented to you and create a new page on your blog. Then copy the HTML into your blogging platform’s HTML editor and your store should appear when you save the HTML.

The third, and perhaps the most desirable, is to fully place your store on your site. However, this is for more experienced users only. The inline frame will work just fine for most blogs and is a lot easier to do. This is similar to embedding the in-line frame, however it will be wider and take up all of the webpage below the header and menu bars.

Here are the steps:

Select the appropriate option at the top of the page. Then:

1. Create a new frameset page using the code sample provided to you. You can alter the dimensions of this to fit your site better.
2. Place your site’s navigation in one of the frames and your aStore URL in another frame.
3. Add a “Store” link to your site’s main navigation and link it to the new frameset you just created.

Your store should now be live on your website.

Before I sign off – a few tips about integrating a new store on a blog:

• It can be very tempting to make a big announcement to all of your readers and pretty much beg them to buy from you. However, all this will do is turn your great blog into a blog that’s losing readers and annoying people. Nobody likes to be constantly asked to buy things. It’s annoying.
• Instead, make a short post informing your readers about the new store. Tell them it contains some good products and be honest about the fact that it earns the blog some income. Also, the odd link in a post when it’s relevant and actually helps the reader works wonders.
• Finally, resist the temptation to add products that don’t follow the three rules above. You won’t make much sales. Think like a reader of your blog!

What revenue streams do you have for your blog?   We have previously covered a few other possibilities such as e-cards and 5 Adsense alternatives.   Which other ones do you prefer?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Turn Your Amazon Links Into Affiliate Links (8)
• How To Publish Your Own Book (In Print) Cheaply (12)
• 5 Online & Software Resources For Booksellers (1)
• 5 CPA Alternatives To Adsense On Your Blog Or Website (12)
• You Actually Can Earn Money by Taking Online Surveys (34)

To the untrained eye, buying Amazon MP3 music downloads might not immediately seem like a bargain – and let’s face it, it’s not as easy as clicking the buy button in iTunes. As with all things Apple, the whole experience of buying music on iTunes is seamless, simple and the catalog is huge, encompassing songs from the most obscure indie bands to mainstream pop.

Apple provides a slightly higher quality music format (DRM-free 256kb/s AAC), they also have variable song pricing, most individual songs costing you $1.29. Less popular songs are priced at $0.99 and $.79 (there are very few), but you can usually get a better deal by purchasing the whole album, with a typical 12 track record running you at $9.99.

There’s some good news though. Various promotions are always available if you visit the music store home, check the Facebook fan page and sign up for the Apple education newsletter. Just the other week, a 30 track sampler full of indie tracks was available for free, in addition to the free songs available every week on Tuesday.

You will also notice that certain bands/singers and genres will go on sale on special occasions, holidays or celebrations. You also have a good chance of getting the album at a lower price if you pre-order or buy it after the dust settles (after 3-4 months of the original release).

Depending on your perspective, as a PC or Mac user, an iPod or another device owner, the AAC format in which the music is available, might or might not suit your needs. The 256Kb/s AAC format is considered to be of higher quality to its MP3 counterpart, but any chance of noticing the difference will require a pretty expensive audio setup. (For more details on difference between audio formats see Audio File Formats Explained in Simple Terms)

Listening in noisy environments, on low quality ear buds (like the ones that come with your iPod) will mask any difference between the formats. You should also consider that not all devices can play the AAC format, especially older MP3 players. For most people, it doesn’t make sense to buy music from the iTunes Store without owning an iPod or iPhone – they probably have another application that syncs their device, and generally, buying Amazon MP3 downloads is cheaper.

Another nail in iTunes’s coffin is the fact that the Amazon downloader application will automatically import the Amazon MP3 songs you buy into iTunes if you choose to. Which means that you can have the songs on your iPod with just a little bit of hassle, as there’s no need to import manually.  Plus since the Amazon MP3 songs come in DRM-free MP3 format, they can be immediately synced to your iPod, without requiring transcoding. If you’re using another MP3 player, like the Sandisk ones, your device most likely syncs with Windows Media Player, which is also compatible with the Amazon Downloader automatic import.

Amazon scores more points for having a lot larger collection of promotional priced albums and songs, and also offers a selection of free ones every day. At the end of the day, there’s no discernible reason that would make a price conscious person opt for buying music on iTunes.

Don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comments. You should also check out Download Free Music, Videos & Movies on iTunes, 7 Sites To Get Free Music Legally, 6 Ways To Sync Music To Your iPhone Without iTunes and 3 Ultra Cheap Alternatives To iTunes Store.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Break Free From iTunes With Amazon Music Downloads (23)
• 3 Ultra Cheap Alternatives To iTunes Store (24)
• How to Improve Your iTunes Experience (Part 2) [Mac Only] (16)
• How To Organize Your iTunes Collection With TidySongs (43)
• How to Improve Your iTunes Experience (Part 1) [Mac Only] (39)

However, one night I was sitting at the computer and came across one of the coolest MP3 downloads of the Beatles song “Revolution” and I realized how cool it would be to download the songs that I want, exactly when I want them. So, gritting my teeth, I decided to get with the program – and the most popular music download application of choice was iTunes.

I had an MP3 player already, and figured since iTunes had one of the coolest interfaces to find music downloads, I’d go with that. After my first purchased download, I realized that while the song played fabulous within the iTunes player – there’s no easy way to transfer iTunes music that you purchase over to MP3 devices. You need an iPod. Great. I wasn’t about to go out and buy an iPod since I already had an MP3 player.

I spent a few weeks struggling to rig up a system that would convert my iTunes purchases into MP3 music, and then testing out a variety of freeware and hacks that promised to convert iTunes over to high quality MP3, I realized that no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get a high quality MP3 from my iTunes purchases.

Sure, I could go to Wal-Mart or Target and download music files – but I’d already purchased a whole collection of iTunes tracks. Frustrated and disgusted with iTunes, Apple and the whole mess – I went back to listening to the radio.  However, a few years later and a few years wiser, I’m back in the game – and I’m back thanks to Amazon Music Downloads.

Amazon Music Downloads Combines Instant Play With Flexible Options

Here’s what struck me as perfect about the Amazon Downloader. With iTunes, you have a slick interface to browse through music, listen to small samples and download and play tracks or albums. In my opinion, iTunes is still one of the best interfaces around for browsing and playing music.

On the other hand, if you don’t want to stay attached to your computer – you’re really out of luck if you don’t have an iPod. On the flip side, places like Wal-Mart or Target would let you purchase and download specific MP3 tracks, but it was a very manual process where you purchase and download the file and then load it into whichever player or device you like. In a way, the Amazon music downloader is very similiar to the Wal-Mart and Target approach, however it provides a slick and convenient way to integrate the online song browsing area of Amazon’s website with your Media player.

This year, the UK’s Guardian took notice of the fact that Amazon is coming out punching with competitive pricing on music downloads in order to compete with iTunes in a big way. Just browsing through the main MP3 downloads site at Amazon, you can see that for yourself. The prices are competitive enough, and just like on iTunes, when you click on a song there’s a “play” button that you can use to listen to a sample clip of the song. I found a cool track from the movie Transformer’s – Linkin Park’s New Divide, a very cool tune based on the sample (I can’t wait to see the movie).

Installing the Amazon Music Downloader

In addition, if you look at the top of Amazon’s MP3 Download section, you’ll notice a link to Install the MP3 downloader. In my opinion, it’s this feature, in addition to the fact that the downloaded music can be played in any MP3 capable device that you may own, that’s going to give Amazon the competitive advantage. People don’t like to have their hands tied when they pay for music. The download is available for Windows, Mac or Linux.

Once you download and install the application, it runs in the background and shows up in your taskbar. The software takes up hardly any resources, and it handles all of your music downloads while you can continue surfing – this includes managing the download of multiple files as well as automatically inserting them for you into your Media Player library (in the case of Windows – Windows Media Player).  Whenever you’re browsing Amazing MP3 downloads and you decide to buy a song, you’ll first have to pass through the purchase review screen.

Once you click “continue,” the file download box will pop up – make sure to unclick “Always ask before opening this type of file,” before you select “Open” so that the next time you go to download a song, it’ll just automatically allow the Amazon Downloader application to handle the file for you without any interaction on your part.

Once the download is complete, your new song appears in the Amazon MP3 Downloader title list that shows you all of the songs you’ve downloaded. The application is really less of an interface as it is a tool to seamlessly pass your downloads through to your media player library.

To make sure that “pass-through” takes place as it should, within the downloader applicatoin click on File -> Preferences. On the following screen, you’ll want to make sure that the “When a track finishes downloading…” selection box contains the option to pass the track into Windows Media Player.

Integrating With Windows Media Player and MP3 Devices

Once your download completes, the media player will automatically open. Your purchased title appears in the “All Music” category, where you can listen to it or move it into your own playlists. This feature means that there’s no need to keep track of where your file downloads, and you don’t have to go through the extra steps of opening up the media player and manually adding the song into your library. Once you purchase and download – it’s done.

If you want to open up the file to transfer it over to your MP3 device, just click on the “View Download Folder” at the top menu bar inside the Amazon MP3 Downloader. The directory where your files are located will open, and you can either burn them to a CD, download them to your favorite MP3 device, or simply admire what it looks like to truly own music files that you can do whatever you want with – you don’t have to play them in a specific device!

I don’t mean to knock iTunes, we love the application and write about it all the time, like Saikat’s awesome article on how to fix a lost link to the iTunes music library.  Ultimately, it really does have one of the best written music browse/music player applications in the industry. However the desire to maintain a proprietary stronghold of the music format is probably going to keep iTunes at a major competitive disadvantage. I, for one, intend to become a loyal Amazon MP3 Downloader fan from now on. Another great option, if you’re interested in more of a player/downloader application, check out Mark’s review of Mozilla’s Songbird.

If you’re not really a fan of iTunes, let’s hope Jackson can turn you into one with his posts: How to Improve Your iTunes Experience Part One and Two. Also, not forgetting, MakeUseOf has put in a lot of effort into creating a PDF Manual for you iTunes newbies: The BIG Book of iTunes. Grab it now!

What’s your favorite source for cheap MP3 music downloads? Have you read 3 Ultra Cheap Alternatives To iTunes Store? What do you think of the Amazon Music Download application? Share your opinion in the comments section below.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• How to Improve Your iTunes Experience (Part 2) [Mac Only] (16)
• Buying Music: iTunes Store vs Amazon MP3 Downloads (14)
• Move over iTunes – Mozilla’s Songbird is Here (42)
• How to Improve Your iTunes Experience (Part 1) [Mac Only] (39)
• 3 Ultra Cheap Alternatives To iTunes Store (24)

But when I bought an Acer netbook a few weeks back, I realised that I didn’t need a Kindle to carry my books around with me.  I just needed to find a software program to open e-books, find the books I wanted on either torrents or Project Gutenberg and then read them on my netbook.

After a bit of searching, I settled on Microsoft Reader as the app of choice.  A lot of people seem to scoff at Microsoft Reader because it’s 9 years old and it’s Microsoft but so what?  It works and as far as I’m concerned, if it works, what does it matter how old it is and who’s made it?

What I really like about MS Reader is that they have a conversion tool for turning Word documents into Reader e-books.   So if you have say a text file from Project Gutenberg that you want to read in MS Reader, you can transfer the text to a Word document, press the Reader button which sits in the Word toolbar, then after 30 seconds or so, you have a nice new Reader file to open up as an e-book. But I’m getting ahead of myself here.

After installing MS Reader on my netbook, I opened it up and the first thing you’ll see is your library.  (Please note that some parts are in German because I have a German language computer) :

Now it’s pretty empty because I’ve just installed it.  If you want to buy more books, it goes without saying that Microsoft encourages you to buy books in their own file format (.lit).  Their online store starts here and the book links are redirected to stores such as Powells, Diesel, Fictionwise and so on.   Prices start from $10.

But this is MakeUseOf and the emphasis with us is always on free.  So I want to show you the conversion tool to make your own e-books.   It really is pretty good.   Now if you want to grab the latest Steve Berry or John Grisham book from torrents then that is up to you.   I am not going to condone it or take any stance on it whatsoever.  That’s just going to get me and MakeUseOf into trouble.  Instead I am going to play it safe today and talk about a copyright-expired book.  Let’s take one of Sherlock Holmes’ adventures.

Now when you install the MS Reader conversion tool, it will perch itself on your MS Word toolbar like so :

Now let’s say for example that you want to read The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes in MS Reader. It can be found here for free in Project Gutenberg.   All you need to do is download the text file, copy (CTRL+C) the entire text and paste (CTRL+V) it all into a Word document.   Make sure the margins are all OK, your fonts are all OK (I personally detest Times New Roman so I always change the font) then hit that conversion button.  Within 20-30 seconds, you’ll see the converted file in your computer which you should then drag over to your Reader library folder.   Double-click the file to see it in your Reader library page :

Now the conversion tool is good but it isn’t perfect.  So you’re going to get the odd paragraph here and there which is going to get pushed out of whack.  As you can see below.  But look at the excellent quality of the text.  Very readable wouldn’t you say?   I chose Arial size 10 as my font but you can choose any font and size you want.

The conversion tool apparently also converts pictures so you can also embed the images into the Word document and Reader will also move them over.

Now what if the original document isn’t a text document but a PDF file?   A lot of e-books are PDF files these days.  Well you have two options as far as I can see.   You can either convert the PDF to a Word document or you can use an OCR scanning service to turn the PDF e-book from an image into text (a bit like what Project Gutenberg does. Varun highlighted an OCR tool called JOCR a few days back).  Your fastest option is probably to convert the PDF into a Word document.  We’ve covered quite a few of these services on MakeUseOf.   Karl has covered HelloPDF.  There’s also ConvertPDFToWord, PDFUndo and many more.

Anyway, to come back to MS Reader, once you have your custom-made e-book installed inside, there are options you can take advantage of.   You can have it read the book back to you (although the voice sounds like Hal from 2001AD).   You can bookmark a page (obviously an essential requirement) and if you right-click on a word, the following menu pops up -

• Add Bookmark – By highlighting a word or phrase, you can bookmark that page in different colours and automatically come back to that page at any time by clicking a bookmark icon in the right margin.
• Add Highlight - You can highlight a word or phrase as if you would with a highlighter pen on a normal book.  Again, you can automatically go straight to a highlighted word or phrase by clicking on the annotations icon in a pop-up menu.
• Add Text Note – you can add a personal note to a word or phrase.
• Add Drawing – you can add a freeform drawing to a word or phrase.
• Find - finds all other instances of that word in the e-book.  Not sure how useful that one is.
• Copy Text – no explanation needed here
• Play – you can hear the word being spoken by MS Reader.  Good if that language is not your first language and you want to hear how the word is pronounced.
• Lookup – looks up the definition of the word.  Only works if you have a dictionary installed in MS Reader.

So to sum up, the Kindle is a fantastic device but if you live outside the US and it’s not available to you, it’s not the end of the world.   You can easily install something like Microsoft Reader on your netbook and have something kind of similar.   As you will see, the text quality is excellent, you can go full-screen, bookmark pages, highlight text….with a bit of app tweaking and hacking, you can probably make your netbook do the things that a Kindle does.   Well OK, not quite everything but you get my meaning.

I’d be interested to get your opinions on this so if you’ve done something similar, if you know of a better e-book program or if you have any other comments, start writing them below!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• How To Download Free Amazon Kindle eBooks To Your PC (22)
• Offer Your Readers A RSS To PDF Option With Feedbooks (3)
• Mobipocket – An Awesome ebook Reader Which is Free (14)
• Make Your Own eBooks with eBook Hood (3)
• How To Remove DRM from MOBI and PRC eBooks (112)

To explain it clearer, Google tries to guess what other type of information the surfer would also like see based on his or her search query. For example, for “Britney Spears” you’ll see images and videos blended within the search interface and for “downtown Los Angeles” you’ll get local search results (i.e. maps.google.com).

The idea of pulling more data by one-click searching can be expanded. You do not have to limit yourself to the Google search engine only. This time I am listing a few cool FireFox addons that show you more relevant information based on your search query and provides you with more opportunities to browse through.

Add Multiple Search Engines to Google Search Interface

WebMynd offers to search a wealth of search platforms simultaneously with your Google search, by default: Twitter Search, Amazon, YouTube; but you can also add numerous other search options (e.g. Flickr, Wikipedia, Digg, LinkedIn, CNN, etc). The search results will appear right on Google’s results page in the right sidebar:

Additional great features of the page:

• send Tweets directly from your search results asking your friends advice related to your search;
• user-friendly interface: add/hide engines with one click, drag-and-drop ordering of pages.

Integrate Amazon.com and eBay Search:

GoogAzon adds the first ten search results from Amazon and eBay in a collapsed orange bar to the top of your Google results page (works also for Yahoo or MSN / Live search). The results include the title, price, and a mouse-over thumbnail image.

You can also quickly share the results with friends and access the actual Amazon / eBay search results.

Add Reference Information

Google Search Sidebar for FF3 (Greasemonkey plugin) adds relevant results from Wikipedia and Dictionary.com (as well as Flickr, and YouTube) :

See Your Browsing History

Infoaxe is a browser addon (both FireFox and Internet Explorer versions available) that will show your browsing history results based on your Google search term.

Note: it requires registration and access to your private data, i.e. browsing history.

See What Your Facebook Friends Have to Say:

SideStripe offers a handy Google Gadget that integrates with the Google search results page and searches your friends list for your search query.

The tool offers some more functionality (e.g. it invites you to ask your friends’ opinion on what you are searching) but I didn’t invite my friends to use the application, so I can’t say if it works. The search functionality works pretty well though:

Would you like to add more searching functionality or do you think “plain” Google is all you need? Do you use any tools that make Google better? Share your thoughts!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Track Facebook, Twitter, Flickr & Youtube Updates on iPhone (3)
• Shozu – The Mobile Social Networking Hub (12)
• Search Google, Yahoo, Bing & Twitter From Your IM Program (16)
• 3 Ways to See Most Favorited Google Search Result (6)
• Who Needs Photoshop When You Can Have Splashup? (21)

For the uninitiated, Greasemonkey scripts provides a way for customizing the look and/or functionality of sites according to your needs. Firefox users would require this addon to add and manage Greasemonkey scripts. While it is possible to run user scripts in other browsers, it is a completely different topic. So may I suggest that GIYF (Google is Your Friend) here.

IMDB – Pirated Version

IMDB is the mother of all sites when it comes to information on movies, documentaries, video games and similar content. How cool it would be if you could watch trailers of the movies you are searching for, search for torrents and other download links, right from the IMDB page for the particular title? All with a cool ajax interface that doesn’t get in your way of browsing IMDB. This script allows you to do just that. You can get torrent link, VCDQuality reports, Rapidshare links and trailers right from the IMDB entry for a particular title.

VCDQuality Tor v1.03

This script works on VCDQuality.com and adds links to torrent searches on Mininova and Torrentz. On clicking the icons you are taken to the search results page on the appropriate site. There was a minor glitch when I tried this script and I had to add http://*vcdq.com/* to the included pages section. Hence forth the script performed as advertised.

Rotten Tomatoes Popular Torrent Search Linker

The script adds search links to popular torrent sites on all RottenTomatoes movies pages. You get a bar just above the tomatometer. Click on the icon for the torrent site of your choice and bam, you are already staring down the available torrents for the title.

Pirates of the Amazon

Pirates of the Amazon is a Firefox Add on and created much hype recently with Amazon having to step in with legal issues. The site was down for some time and when it came up it was not hosting the addon anymore. The internet however is a wild wild place and the addon is already available on ‘n’ number of torrent sites and some ftp directories. Just Google Around.

The addon searches for torrents of anything that you search on Amazon.com and provides you direct links for the torrent file if found. Of course it works with things that can be converted to digital formats. You can’t get teddy bears on The Pirate Bay. Ahem.. or can you?

The Pirate Bay Enhancer

Very useful for users of The Pirate Bay. It adds – seeder/peer ratio which, if you don’t already know about it, is the ratio of the number of seeders to the number of peers. Higher the ratio better are the chances of getting good download speeds. So it’s wise to consider the ratio as the basis for choosing torrents over the number of seeders.

The script also has a command to remove dead torrents from listing. It has some bugs in that the headings remain the same as without the script and some text overflows into obscurity. However you get used to what is what, and it’s easy to hack as well!

Don’t use The Pirate Bay? Search for a similar script for your favorite tracker on User Scripts.

What user scripts do you all use? Are there any specific scripts for torrent users that are really cool and were not covered here? Share them with us in the comments.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Wyzo Beta – The Web Browser for Downloaders (12)
• Who Needs The Amazon Kindle When You Have A Netbook? (26)
• Top Torrent Search Engines for All Torrent Downloaders (23)
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Thankfully, though, there are a ton of ways to find to do computer-like things when you’re not at your computer. Different places are creeping up that will help you read emails, make plans, win bets, find pointless information, and generally do things you’d do on the computer, without it.

I’m going to assume that you have your cell phone with you when you’re away from your computer. With just your cell, and for most of these, any cell will do, you can do many of the things you always do on the computer.

Here are 9 of the many ways you can use a computer with just a cell phone, beyond just accessing mobile sites (which most sites have by now):

Disclaimer: with these products, you will start texting – A LOT. If you don’t have an unlimited texting plan, prepare to see your bills go up more than slightly!

1. Texting, Google-style with Google SMS

You name it, Google SMS can do it with a text message. By sending a text message to GOOGLE (466453) you can find information like restaurant listings, weather, sports scores, calculator, conversions, and the like. Here’s the full listing, from Google, of all the things they can do with your text message.

But of course there are some risks to using Google SMS…..

2. Ask, and You Shall Be Answered

Got questions? Text them to ChaCha (242242). A real-live human being will answer your question in 160 characters, and send you the answer.

ChaCha is great because it’s a real person on the other end, which means you can ask a real question instead of trying to nail down search terms. If you don’t want to send a text message, call 1 (800) 224-2242 (2ChaCha). ChaCha can also send you a random joke or weather information, but the question and answer service is their bread-and-butter. It’s a great way to settle bets, or find answers to the irritating questions you just can’t seem to figure out.

3. Get your Wikipedia On

Wikipedia, in the words of The Office’s Michael Scott, “is the best thing ever.” Trouble is, for anyone who’s tried to use it from a cell phone browser, it’s tough to read. The formatting is bad for a cell phone, and using Wikipedia is much harder. Wapedia fixes that by taking Wikipedia and formatting it in a way that’s much easier to read on your cell phone. It strips away all the unnecessary stuff like the sidebar links, and puts everything into a one-column view that’s much easier to read on your cell phone. For an information-phile like me, Wapedia’s a great way to keep an easy-to-use Wikipedia in your pocket.

4. Go to the Movies

Want to go to the movies? Despite their terribly annoying ads, Fandango’s still the best place to buy movie tickets. In addition to their mobile site, you can use their relatively new SMS service to make buying tickets from your cell phone even easier. Send your zip code and a movie title to FNDGO (36436), and Fandango finds all the results for you. With an increasing number of carriers, you can even buy tickets with a text. Spur-of-the-moment movie craving? You’re all set.

5. Find a Starbucks and some Wi-Fi

I love Starbucks. There’s one on the ground floor of the building where I live, and I may personally be keeping it in business. Odds are, wherever you are, you’ll be able to find a Starbucks just by turning around. If not though, text your zip code to MYSBUX (697289) and Starbucks will show you their three nearest locations. Plus, with more and more Starbucks offering Wi-Fi, you’ll be able to get back on your computer.

Don’t want to go to Starbucks? Send “wifi” and your location to US411(87411), and you’ll get a whole list of free Wi-Fi hotspots nearby. That way, you won’t have to miss your computer any longer.

6. “Hello, Operator?”

Google search, for your voice and phone. Most 411 services are ridiculously expensive, but Goog-411 isn’t. You search Google with your voice, for a business or personal listing, and it connects you for free. You can even request a text message with all the contact info, for free.  Just dial 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-6446411). For more, check out Karl’s post.

7. Never Miss a Thing

Let’s say you’re looking to buy something on Craigslist. A boat, say. If you want to know when a boat comes onto Craigslist that’s in your price range, check out Notify.me. Set up notifications for everything from your friends’ Twitter statuses to breaking news stories, and Notify.me sends you an alert every time something matches.

They can be sent to your IM, email, desktop client, or cell phone via SMS. This one’s the one that will kill your texting bill, but if you’re sitting at your computer waiting for something, or just don’t want to be behind, Notify.me is a really useful tool.

8. Never Miss the Important Stuff

So, you’re kind of a big deal. People know you. Sometimes you get important email, even when you’re away from your desk. With AwayFind, you don’t need to worry about missing crucial email when you’re not at your computer. Using AwayFind, you can set up an “Out Of Office” email to auto-respond every time you get email, and include a link to your AwayFind page.

If someone needs to get in touch with you, they can fill out the AwayFind form, and their email comes through to you on your phone. It gets trimmed to one message, and helps you rest easy that if someone really needed to get through to you while you’re on vacation, they could. Plus, it gives you something to check as habitually as you do your email.

9. Buy, Buy, Buy

Let’s be honest: half the fun of the Web is the random, unneeded impulse buys. If you’re away from your computer and decided you’ve just got to have that cool thing you saw this morning, never fear, Amazon is here!

Using their “TextBuyIt” service, you can send a text message with a product name to AMAZON (262966). You’ll get two results from Amazon, with more coming if you reply with a text saying “m”. If you decide to buy something, reply with the result number, and you’ll get a call from Amazon to create and confirm your order. It’s so simple, it’s a little scary.

Who says you need to be at a computer all the time? Just by using your cell phone, you can free yourself from its grip.

Which cellphone numbers or mobile services do you use to grab information off the internet?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Different from an ad network, an affiliate program is based on sales instead of impressions and clicks. The Amazon Associates Program allows you to benefit from every sale that results from one of your recommendations. Even if you don’t regularly devote a post to reviewing items like those that people typically buy from Amazon, you probably mention the odd book or movie here and there around your site. If you were in the affiliate program, your offhand comment could be turned into actual revenue.

Now, I’m not usually in the habit of “selling” an advertising program to my readers. The reason I’m so emphatic about Amazon’s program is that it’s incredibly easy to use and built for regular bloggers (Joe the Blogger anyone?) and web professionals alike. Beyond this, it doesn’t require you to bend your page format out of shape just so you can use their system. This is an exceedingly rare trait for an on-site advertiser, as you may already know.

The most useful feature of the Amazon Associates Program (AAP, as I’ll call it) is their linking service. With a number of tools, you can take any link to an Amazon product and convert it into one that will give you credit for the sale. The best way to do this is to simply log-on to the AAP and then visit the page in question. Above the site a collapsible toolbar (web-based) will appear and give you several options. For now, the only one we’re interested in is the “link to this page option”

While unfortunately there is no Ajax drop-down, it does take you to another page with several options in crafting your link. From there, you can paste it wherever you need it to go and you’re all set. If you want to go a little farther, they offer a small script that will create a “fly-out” about the product when your readers roll over it. This modification is up to you. Some people find this kind of advertising very obnoxious, but as they becomes more and more prevalent, less people may mind fly-outs as long as they are well coded.

If you want to simplify the process of creating links (when creating lists and so forth) you can add in another script and cause the link to go directly to the search results for your link’s text. It’s called Quick Linker and more information about installing it is available here (you must have an account first).

Another more traditional option is a simple banner that directs users to a specific part of Amazon. This is one of those things that will distort your pretty page layout. I’m not saying these kinds of ads are bad, but the only difference between these banners and the ones in an ad network is that all users have to do is click a banner ad, whereas users have to actually buy something after clicking one of these. One advantage that I can see is that AAP ads will never diverge from “ads about books” or “ads about electronics” if that’s how you set them.

The final way that the APP can help you monetize recommendations actually combines the two above ad types. Amazon gives you the option to create an “aStore” that is essentially a list of all the books and things that you like. From this list, which can be categorized by type, you can generate not just custom banner ads, but a complete mini-store for your readers to pursue. Personally, I don’t recommend the full-sized store unless you meet one of the following requirements:

• You specialize in recommendations and reviews
• Your website is very niche and people look to you for guidance
• Your blog is very “lifestyle” based – you subscribe to a very specific philosophy
• You have many readers who are interested in your personality and essentially want to be like you

To know if you fit into this last category, just look at how you interact with people on the web. Do people tweet back and forth with you on Twitter a lot? Are there a lot of commenters on your blog and/or do you get into a lot of conversations in the comments? If so, an aStore might actually be a good way to share your favorite books (for instance) with your “fans.” There’s nothing wrong with recognizing you’re a bit of a celebrity in the eyes of some people.

The controls for the aStore are very elaborate and allow you to create a fairly attractive page that can even match your site’s color palate if you so choose. As you can see, mine is fairly plain, but I created two categories to divide up the books I’ve read by genre. The system lists the books in the order that you added them, so I suggest possibly making a “featured” category at the top so that certain stand-out products aren’t lost in the crowd.

From the list of items in your aStore, you can generate a number of widgets on the “widgets” tab of the interface. Personally I was disappointed with the variety of widget sizes available to you. Since boxes are generated from a nicely packaged database, one would think that more numerous and more attractive templates could have been created for publishers. Even so, if you tinker about with the size and template controls you should be able to find something that suits you.

When everything is set up how you like it, your account activity can be monitored on the account summary. It is clean and concise and there are many options for viewing the raw data if you’re addicted to checking stats like me.  If you want an example of several of these advertisement types, check out this book review I wrote.

Overall, I have been impressed by the Amazon Associates Program, for it has lived up to the name given it by other bloggers who suggested it to me. The interface is very simple yet full of options. Also, it provides a number of different strategies for administering advertising to a page. At the least, everyone should use this service whenever they create a link to an Amazon product. From there you can determine if it’s the right program for you.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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With such a huge product base, simply browsing Amazon has almost become a tedious job. There are the lists of “What’s Hot”, but the interface is more functional than enticing.

Therefore, allow me to introduce Amazon Windowshop.

Simply put, Amazon Windowshop is a virtual portal designed to display “What’s Hot” on Amazon.com interactively. Here, text links and preview buttons are nowhere to be found. Instead you are presented with unique “tabs” that display new and popular music, films, book and games.

This service is very simple to use and can be navigated using just the keyboard. Instead of using your mouse to click links, you are encouraged to select from categories such as “New Music This Tuesday” which, as you may have guessed, displays all the popular music releases, “Bestselling Video Games”, charting that particular month’s sales and pre-orders and even suggests bands/acts you should listen to in their “Music Artists We Think You Should Hear” section.

If, like in the screenshot above, you select the “Bestselling Video Games” section, you will be presented with the top ten best-sellers in that category. Each game will feature its official trailer and plays automatically so be careful if you are checking this out in an environment that wouldn’t lend well to Banjo Kazooie’s catchphrases!

Inside the music sections, you will be treated to a thirty second snippet off a track from that album with the options to buy said album on either CD or digitally from their MP3 store. The book section surprises, it includes a voice-over reading the synopsis of the book but Amazon haven’t yet incorporated their “Search Inside” feature.

Amazon has made use of Adobe’s Flash Player and have also tapped into their S3 service so they can deliver high quality images, video and audio clips quickly to the user. The service is updated real-time and provides complete integration with Amazon’s commerce store meaning if you like what you see/hear/feel/think, you can travel to the product site and purchase to your hearts content. There is no word on whether they will introduce the “Search Inside” service but incorporating it into their Flash interface shouldn’t be too much hassle for their developers.

Currently, Windowshop is only available for US audiences and there are no indications as to whether it will be ported to their worldwide user base. I think the real question is whether Windowshop can be incorporated into Amazon’s main portal, allowing users to choose their own way to browse the store.

What do you think of Windowshop? Do you see yourself using it? Is this the future of Amazon? Or is it just a sales gimmick?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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ShoppingNotes is one of those ways and it has been a fantastic tool so far. What it does is allow you to put in the URL of a product page and it then monitors that page for you on 30 day intervals. If the product price moves in any way, it alerts you instantly by email.

By using this service, I was able to immediately grab much wanted books whenever Amazon spontaneously decided to cut the price in half. I was able to pick up birthday presents for friends and family. I have even started to plan Christmas early this year, monitoring prices on various sites to see if the prices are going to move significantly.

When it comes to setting up an alert, you are given the following options :

This is where it asks you how you want to be alerted when the price moves. You can choose to be alerted when the price drops below a certain price threshold or when the price moves at all. Since I am not in the United States and therefore not dealing in US dollars, I decided not to mess around with a certain price level and opted instead to be alerted to any price movement. But if you are in the US, you may decide you only want to be interrupted if the price drops below a certain amount.

As you can also see, you can set up lists and assign your pages to a certain list to keep your account tidy and organised.

Now how do you use it? Well that’s simple. ShoppingNotes provides you with a bookmarklet which you place in your browser bar. Then whenever you are on a product page and you want to put that product into your ShoppingNotes account, just hit that bookmarklet :

By pressing the bookmarklet, all the details of the product are then instantly passed along to the ShoppingNotes website and pre-filled into the correct fields. Then after checking to make sure that everything is to your satisfaction, press “save” and you’ll then be brought back to the site you were at before – in my case, Amazon. Then you can keep on surfing for more things to buy! Very smooth.

If you’re the sort of person who buys a lot of things online – clothes, books, DVD’s, CD’s, clothes, games – and you’re constantly getting complaints from your significant other about the amount of money you’re spending then maybe you should think about using ShoppingNotes? Plug all your desired items into the service, let it monitor the prices for you and wait for the prices to drop! Then grab them before anyone else realises what’s going on!

Then email me and I will bestow upon you honorary Scottish citizenship for being able to spot and grab a genuine bargain and save money.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Amazon has entered the ring of online payment services which will compete directly with PayPal and Google Checkout.

Amazon’s new service is called Amazon Checkout. Surprised? I’m not! Big companies do well keeping things simple. That old KISS principal

I logged on and signed up. The process was pretty painless and very similar to that of PayPal and Google. The whole email, bank and cell phone verification aid in proving to the Amazon Overlords you are who you say you are. If you are familiar with the other services mentioned you have jumped through these hoops before.

You can send and request money, add additional funding sources. There is nothing here that really jumps up at you and makes you go WOW. But it does appear to be a solid service and a great alternative to PayPal and Google.

What sets this service apart from the others is when choosing to integrate it into your website you automagically gain the ability to use your customers saved data for easier processing and one click purchases will help potential buyers buy even quicker.

Amazon has built up a successful reputation and people trust them so this may encourage people to buy more.

Sure this is great for merchants – it gives people looking to spend money another option. But I hear you saying:

“What does it do for me, Joe User?”

It gives you another option as well. Options bring competition which spawn discounts and reward programs. So you should be happy even if you aren’t planning on using it.

According to this excerpt from a TimesOnline article PayPal still rules supreme… But for how long?

PayPal remains by far the most popular payment service, but does not offer one-click purchase. Online retailers using the system will typically display a ‘buy now’ button which, when clicked, takes the customer to a PayPal site where he or she has to enter a user name and password. Amazon’s service promises to allow other retailers to sell goods with one click.

Check out this screen shot of my Account – does it look surprisingly similar to payPal?

Don’t pay attention to my $0 balance as my MakeUseOf expense account didn’t allow for me to make any purchases.

I used Google Checkout when it came out – briefly… Do you know why? Well I got 10% off my first order! That was a good enough reason to sign up but I haven’t been back around there in a while.

What do you use for online payments? Let us know and why – in the comments!

(By) Karl L. Gechlik is a superhero of the IT industry who wears many hats and changes in telephone booths. Karl mostly uses his powers for good and the occasional hysterical prank. Get your geek on & follow his geeky antics at NEW askTheAdmin.com today.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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My 8 month old daughter has been eating an Israeli cereal by a brand called Taami. I was always able to buy it in the store around my neighborhood in good old Brooklyn, New York. But one day it wasn’t available anymore.

They stopped producing it and I went to Amazon. I was able to buy a few cases that lasted me until a month ago.

Now it really isn’t available anywhere and everyone has been waiting patiently for it to come back in stock. I have called distributors, importers and the company’s CEO! Nothing but nothing…

So here is where Amazon Watcher makes my life a little more sane. I no longer have to keep pestering all these people trying to find out when I can get my daughter’s favorite food again. This little application monitors my product on Amazon via its ASIN number. Every product on Amazon has this ASIN or if it is a book it has an ISBN number.

I pop this little number into Amazon Watcher, give it my user name and password for Amazon, tell it the conditions….in this case it is, when it is in stock,buy it! Send me an email, open the page on my screen and automagically buy me 25 cases.

This application can also monitor for price drops on any product on Amazon and either buy it or alert you to its new low price. For Amazon Watcher to buy for you, you need to have purchasing options set up in your Amazon preferences.

Awesome program! I highly recommend it and if any of you have a hot lead on where I can get some of this Taami Baby Oats cereal – let me know! You will have a new best friend for life

The author of the program has another great use for his Amazon Watcher. Check it out in their own words:

Tired of missing hot deals on Amazon.com as they are gone within minutes? AmazonWatcher is a software tool that allows you to monitor the availability and price change on hot items and helps you catch them before they’re gone.

Do you know Amazon has a 30 day price guarantee policy? If the price of the product you bought from Amazon.com dropped within 30 days after your purchase, you can get the price difference back! AmazonWatcher is just the right tool to help you catch the price drop and save you money.

• Supports all 6 Amazon international stores
• Sends alert email when price dropped or item in stock
• Able to retrieve price even if the price is shown as “too low to display”
• Can place order automatically if you choose to
• No spyware, adware or any kind of malware
• Works on Windows and Mac OS X

Yes you read that correctly. You can actually use this program to monitor a product you just bought to see if the price drops within 30 days of purchase. If it does you can get an email and a refund from Amazon! MakeUseOf.com brings the savings right back to you!

(By) Karl L. Gechlik is a superhero of the IT industry who wears many hats and changes in telephone booths. Karl mostly uses his powers for good and the occasional hysterical prank. Get your geek on & follow his geeky antics at askTheAdmin.com today.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Many of us do not have ready access to malls or enjoy shopping for gifts for our friends and family members. However, Amazon Gift Central provides a clean, easy to use interface that prepares you to select great gifts for your friends and family members without the hassle of driving to a mall or taking hours and hours to find the “perfect” gift.

Amazon Gift Central provides dozens of gift guides, so you can select by age, gender, price favorite activities of the recipient and more to select the perfect gift. In addition, keep track of what you purchased previously with the Gift Organizer.

Screenshot of Gift Organizer

Create a gift idea list by visiting Amazon Gift Central and adding the name and birthday of a person you want to select gifts for. Don’t forget to sign in to your Amazon.com account so your settings are saved. Once you’ve created a gift idea list, add new items to the list!

This is pretty easy:

1. Browse Amazon.com for the item you want to add to your list, or visit the Gift Guides for gift ideas.
2. Then, click the “Add to Wish List” button on the product’s detail page, and be sure to place the item in the correct wish list.
3. Press “Go”!

Note: “Move to” will place the item only on the Gift Idea List you select. “Also add to” will place it on your Wish List and the selected Gift Idea List.

When it is time to purchase a gift, find a gift idea list by visiting your Amazon Wish List page, and look below the list of your wish lists for the ones you created. Also, link to your recipient’s Amazon.com Wish List (if they have a public one), so you have an idea of what they are looking for.

For information on how to make Wish Lists public, visit Amazon’s help pages. This will also generate two new sections on your Amazon Gift Central page, “From Wish Lists” and “Latest Activity.” Latest Activity will show you the most recent items your friend or family member has viewed – just so you can have an idea of what has interested them lately on Amazon.com.

Screenshot of Latest Activity

Amazon Gift Central also makes the best of the combination of the wish lists you’ve created and the wish lists that were self-created by the recipient and develops suggested gifts for you to take a look at as potential winners in the “best gift ever” competition!

Screenshot of Reccomended Items Sections

What’s your favorite way to organize your gift selection and gift giving? Let’s hear it in the comments!

(By) Ellie, a lover of all things shopping-related. You can find her searching the streets of New York City and online for great deals and gifts when she isn’t writing for ultimate geek girl!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Thinking about this subject a little more, I started to define what “user-generated content” actually is. Then it struck me – user reviews. Everytime you write a review online, that’s user-generated content. Grading these Make Use Of articles using the five yellow stars at the bottom of the page counts as user-generated content – because you are grading the content. You are pointing people towards the good stuff and steering them away from the bad stuff. You are helping to improve what’s on the web and you are making the web a more useful reference resource for all. This is Web 2.0 in action – adding the human touch to the internet.

Here’s some places where you can leave user reviews.

1. Amazon : whenever you contemplate buying something on Amazon, I’m sure your eyes wander to the user reviews and the number of stars that product has garnered. Then as human nature dictates, you buy the one that is highest-rated. Next time you buy something on Amazon, spend 10 minutes or so grading the product and writing a review. It will help other shoppers later to see what you thought of the item. If the item sucks, tell others to warn them. If the item is great, support the company / author / artist by telling the world how wonderful it is.

Plus look at it another way – the top reviewer on Amazon was profiled in Time magazine last year in which it was revealed that she gets free books sent to her by publishers because she is such a prolific reviewer. So there are some side-perks to reviewing too.

2. Internet Movie Database : as I revealed in a previous article, I check the IMDB to see if a movie is good or bad before I decide whether to watch it or not. I read the user reviews which can be filtered into the good reviews, the bad reviews and whether you want to read plot spoilers or not. Next time you watch a movie, why not grade and review the movie for others? Thanks to IMDB reviewers, I have stayed away from a lot of stinkers and saved myself a lot of money in the process. But I still went to see Poseidon (eek!)

3. TV.com : as much as I try to deny it, I love my TV shows. While I am doing writing like this, I like to have the television on with my latest show. With show pilots starting all the time, some good, most bad, how do I find new shows to watch? TV.com! It’s well-known that the TV networks monitor the reviews and forums on TV.com to gauge viewer reactions. So next time a show plot sucks or you’re mad as hell that your favourite show has been cancelled (”West Wing” he mutters to himself), write a review on TV.com. You might just find that someone at NBC or ABC will read it and take your views into account when deciding whether or not to bring back McGyver.

4. eBay Reviews : similar to Amazon reviews, you can also review products on eBay.com. I can’t write much about this as I don’t participate in this one. Maybe an eBay reviewer reading this can fill us in on some details of how it all works?

Do you know any other good places to leave user reviews?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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