Grand National Sweepstake Update

I've added a new page to the examples for the download of my Grand National Sweepstake Kit. The file isn't available yet as final declarations haven't been made but should be there for download on either Wednesday or Thursday. http://www.spreadsheetsdirect.com/examples_sweepstake.html

www.stickapinin.co.uk

I've been working on a little project over the last couple of weeks and it's now working well enough to allow other people to use it. www.stickapinin.co.uk will help you if you're undecided on what horse to pick at Cheltenham this week. All you need to do is select the race and click the pin to get your pick. With plenty of quality horses with little between them you might be better off just sticking a pin in so why not!

Grand National Sweepstake kit

Just a heads up on a Grand National Sweepstake kit spreadsheet that I'll release when final declarations have been made (either Wednesday 2nd April or Thursday 3rd). You will just need to input the entry fee, players names and then print off and cut up the horse names. I'll announce it on the feed/blog when it's available.

www.spreadsheetsdirect.com

Search Engine Webmaster Pages

Here are the links to the three main search engine webmaster pages . They will allow you to enter your sitemap and give you other useful bits and bobs.

Google Webmasters lets you upload your sitemap (http://www.xml-sitemaps.com will help you quickly create one to Google standards.) and check what pages Googles looking at. One nice bit is that it will show you what search result you are for queries.

Yahoo submit site will let you add your site and feed to Yahoo's engine.

MSN Live webmaster enter your site to MSN and check what backlinks you have.

www.spreadsheetsdirect.com

8 Alternative Free Open Source Programs

With the price of some pieces of software in the hundreds it can be an expensive time adding all the programs you want to your computer. Luckily there are usually alternatives to be found for most programs which have the added bonus of being absolutely FREE! Here's a list of 8 free alternatives to everyday bits of software (actually more than 8 programs as the first one is made up of 6)

1) Open Office If you don't fancy paying the £80 or so for Microsoft Office, Open Office offers an excellent alternative. Included in the suite are Calc spreadsheet program which will let you open Excel files and create as good as you'll get in Excel although Excel macros and some formulas won't be compatible. Writer is the Word alternative and, not being a big word processor user, seems to do most of what Word does. Base is a database program which is sadly lacking from the basic versions of MS Office 2007. If you know how to use Access then you should pick it up easily enough. Draw is useful graphics package that lets you do sketches or more complex drawings. Impress is the PowerPoint of the suite. Your old Powerpoint presentations will work in it too. Math allows you create mathematical equations to enter into your other OpenOffice files.

2) Mozilla Firefox is a web browser alternative for Internet Explorer that is faster and more secure. You can have multiple tabs open at once to keep things tidy on your Taskbar(which has now been incorporated into IE7). Firefox also lets you install Add-ons, small pieces of software that can do various things to help improve your surfing experience. If you've got all your favourite sites in your IE bookmarks then they can be easily imported by clicking a few buttons.

3) Mozilla Thunderbird is Mozilla's email client answer to Outlook and with it being from Mozilla it gives you numerous Add-ons to install at your pleasure. Setting up accounts is fairly straightforward. You can also create filters to run on your mail to send them to certain folders or to send automatic replys.

4) Gimp is a Photoshop alternative that allows you to manipulate your photos to a high level. Most of the tools in Photoshop are available so makes it ideal if you're just starting to learn how to change your graphics.

5) AVG Anti Virus will give you protection against any pesky virus' that will try to infiltrate your system. Daily updates mean you've always got the best defense.

6) 7-zip gives you a free means of compressing or decompressing any zip files you might need/have. It is especially useful if you need to open your zipped files after the Winzip free trial has expired.

7) Nvu offers a nice free alternative to Dreamweaver allowing you to easily create your webpages. You can easily tab between different views allowing you to see the source code, a preview with html tags or how it would look in a browser.

8) Ubuntu If you're stuck on an old version of Windows but can't afford to update to Vista, Ubuntu is a nice alternative. Based on Linux it's a free operating system that comes with an easy way of installing all the programs you could possibly need, all of which are free. It will take a bit to de-windowsise yourself but once you get used to it you'll find it fairly straightforward. One drawback is that you won't be able to use your windows software on it unless you use an emulator but with free updates at least you won't have to pay a few hundred pounds out every few years to stay up-to-date.

www.spreadsheetsdirect.com

Free Betting Odds Calculator

I've added a basic version of the betting odds calculator file that I've been working on. The file will allow you to enter odds for up to 20 events and calculate win or each way returns. You can also pick selections from the entered odds to go into a double, treble or higher accumulator and see what winnings you could get back. This is only a basic version as I am working on adding other bet types such as a Yankee and Lucky 31 but it takes a bit of time to get all the various bets involved in them working correctly. I'll update when it's fully finished (maybe in time for the Cheltenham festival). The file can be found at http:///www.spreadsheetsdirect.com/examples.html#11. Hope it helps and good luck.

10 Top Links For Setting Up My Business

Here's a list of 10 top links that I've found useful in the setup of my business and creation of my website:

1) UK Business Forums An excellent forum that covers most things that you need to know for running your own business. Lots of knowledgable people on who can answer your questions.

2) WebCEO All round SEO program that lets you research keywords, optimize your site, submit/check search engine links, anlayze traffic and more. It does cost about £6 a month for the basic but I've found it worth the money. The traffic analysis gives you the search terms used to get to your site and also lets you keep track of any file downloads from your site.

3) Adbrite When you get banned from Google Adsense(I lasted just one week on it!) try Adbrite as an alternative way of monetizing your website or advertising your own.

4) AdsFlip A nice free way of advertising your site. You earn credits to advertise on the network by displaying other people's adverts on your site. Lets you advertise with banners or text only adverts.

5) Google Adwords It's the easiest way of getting your site on the first page of Google results and with Google controlling nearly three quarters of web traffic it's a must for a business especially in the early days.

6) Google Analytics free webpage traffic analysis.

7) Google Webmaster Tools Submit your sitemap and find out how your site is doing on Google.

8) Xinu Returns SEO site tool. Lets you quickly run a report showing how well your site is doing in search engines and social bookmark sites.

9) Yahoo Answers Answer some questions relating to your business area and in the source box add your site. Simple way of getting traffic from a major site.

10) Business Link Government run site that gives you all the information and links to forms etc that you need to set up your own business.