Image via Channy Yun

If you’re like me, you have at least a couple of browsers loaded on your desktop – Opera, Chrome and probably Firefox, my browser of choice.

I’ve written a lot of posts about Firefox because it’s totally customizable through the use of the thousands of addons available and because the basic Firefox interface is just so darned simple to use.

I have thousands of sites bookmarked on my Firefox browser – bookmarks that I’d like to also export to the other browsers I use, or to a thumbdrive or memory stick that I can take with me to access favorites from a remote site. As with all online functions, Firefox makes it easy to bookmark and easy to export your bookmarks to anything from a spreadsheet to another browser.

Now, over the years, I’ve got lots of folders loaded with lots of bookmarks. Problem is, they’re only available through the Firefox browser, right?

Luckily Firefox makes it simple to export that long list of favorite sites to other browsers or external storage devices with a few clicks. The programmers at Mozilla has delivered the utility I need to get basic tasks done quickly.

Exporting Firefox Bookmarks

There are a couple of ways to export Firefox bookmarks depending on where you want to export them to.

To export from Firefox to a portable storage device like a memory stick:

1. Open Firefox. Click on the Bookmark Manger tab on the bookmark toolbar.

2. A drop-down menu appears asking what you want to manage. Scroll to the bottom of the drop-down to Export.

3. A window opens. Click on Browse and locate the memory stick or thumb drive. It’ll usually show up as E: lexar or F: Memorex. In other words, the drive will have a letter after C:, your hard drive, and you’ll see a short description of exactly what you’ve plugged in to a USB port on your computer.

4. Then, select the portable drive to which you want to copy your favorites. Firefox does the heavy lifting. No formatting required.

And, what’s even cooler, with all of your bookmarks stored on a flash drive or some other portable storage device, you can still access all of your favorites from another computer – even one that doesn’t have Firefox loaded on it.

5. To find your Firefox bookmarks on that thumb drive, locate the file named bookmarks.html and click on it. All of your Firefox bookmarks will appear in the file hierarchy you created while using Firefox to browse and bookmark sites.

Exporting Firefox bookmarks to another browser is just as easy – maybe even easier.

1. Open the browser to which you want to export your bookmarks. To keep things simple, let’s say you want to export those thousands of bookmarks to Chrome. Open Chrome.

2. Minimize Chrome so it appears on your icon tray as open.

3. Next, insert your thumb drive or memory stick into the appropriate port – a USB port for the thumb drive, the memory stick port for a memory stick.

4. Browse to find the bookmarks.html folder on the portable memory device where you’ve stored your bookmarks. (See above.)

5. Open Chrome and shrink it so you can still see the Chrome browser interface.

6. Now, simply drag and drop the bookmarks.html file to any space on the open Chrome browser.

7. If you don’t want to save your bookmarks to a portable data storage device first, NP. Simply open your Firefox Profile Directory. The profile directory stores your bookmarks, your personal preferences and settings, themes, add-ons, extensions and other customized features that you’ve added to or disabled from Firefox.

Access your Firefox Profile Directory by opening the Firefox folder that appears as part of the list of Programs when you click on the My Computer icon on your desktop.

8. Open the Firefox Profile Directory.

9. Scroll to find the Bookmarks folder.

10. Now, simply drag and drop that Bookmarks folder anywhere on the open Chrome window.

Firefox will automatically reconfigure your bookmarks to the protocols of Chrome or any other browser, enabling you to export your Firefox bookmarks to Chrome, Safari, IE or any other browser.

One final note: I highly recommend storing your Firefox favorites on a thumb drive or memory stick for a couple of reasons. First, you can take your favorites with you wherever you go and simply plug in that drive into any other system using any other browser for instant access to your favorite, bookmarked sites or blogs.

Second, it’s taken years to collect bookmarked data – the important sites you visit routinely. It’s not data you ever want to have to recreate. So, storing these bookmarks regularly to a portable storage device provides another layer of protection from losing critical data.

I sleep better knowing my favorites are right there on my keychain.

Image via PPL 2A

E-books are very popular on the web. No running to Barnes and Noble. No waiting for a shipment from Amazon. You pay your money, click and that book is on your hard drive ready to be read for fun or profit (mostly profit, from what I can tell).

Anyway, e-books are also used as FREE give-aways. In these cases, the recipient has to provide an e-mail address, knowing that an endless barrage of auto-responders will follow once you’ve captured the e-mail address. Even so, they’ll put up with the back sell and take a chance that the e-book is worth the hassle.

Whether you sell an e-book or give it away as opt-in bait, all e-books are based on certain publishing principles. That’s right. When you offer a download, you’re a publisher in the Digital Age. So make that e-book make sense.

1. Value is NOT measured in poundage.

Some e-book sellers believe that a 250-page e-book is more valuable than a 50-page e-book based on buyer’s perception. That 250-page e-book delivers 500% more information than the puny 50-pager, right?

Wrong, wrong, wrong. I’d rather pay for (or sacrifice my e-mail privacy) for a 50-page book stuffed with tons of good, actionable advice than plow through some wind bag’s opinion on how to start a business.

Less is more in e-book publishing. Do you want to print out a 250 page book? I don’t. And I don’t want to read the darn thing on my computer screen (even though it’s a really cool 17-inch hi-def model). I’m stuck here reading your e-book.

My recommendation: if you can’t say everything that has to be said in 50 pages, you’re trying to say too much.

2. Start by creating the Table of Contents (TOC)

Most first-time e-book writers spend hours preparing outlines with circles and arrows and high-lights. Why?

Instead, put together the e-book’s TOC. What needs to be said in chapter one? And how do you build on that in chapter three, four and five? Each chapter should build on the chapters that came before. You don’t have to keep defining EMFs (electro-magnetic fields) in your “tell-all” on how “Cell Phones Are Killing Us.” Define EMF in Chapter one and build on that.

3. Take the TOC and list topics, in sequence, within each chapter.

Get it. You’re building the content architecture – the book’s outline – and it didn’t even hurt.

4. Start writing.

Let me give you a few separate tips related to the process of writing an e-book:

* set a goal for each day. Five good pages shouldn’t be too hard.
* stick to the content outline
* stay on point
* be clear. You may understand what financial derivatives are but your reader may not. Know your reader’s skill set.
* use clip art to add some visual appeal.
* Bullet lists, charts and graphs and other “visual aids” are extremely useful in conveying a lot of information in a short time. I could send you 63 pages on the company financials over the last year, or I could create a pie chart of that same data. Which is easier to absorb?
* No puff. No fluff. No marketing. No up sell. Solid informational content. That’s what buyers want. That’s what they paid for.

5. A book becomes great in editing.

Editing is boring. Even most editors find it strenuous, monotonous and fatiguing. But this is the stage where you turn your rough text into gleaming pearls of wisdom.

That means reading, re-reading, and re-reading again. Each time, you’ll find something to change. Better sentence construction or information flow. Chapter 7 may become Chapter 3, or cut altogether. It’s at this phase that the e-book takes its final form.

But you’re still not done yet.

6. Word edit.

Okay, the content is in place. It follows a logical order. It builds on what came before. You’re close, but you aren’t there just yet. Time to read the text with an eyeball on making it read better. Make it more precise, humorous, clearer, change sentence structure (btw, if you don’t know what parallel sentence construction is, get a book and get caught up on all that 8th grade English stuff you’ve long since forgotten).

Mark Twain, America’s first 100% American author once said, “The difference between the exact right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightening and a lightning bug.”

Each word should compel the reader to keep reading and keep discovering the secrets you reveal about the dry cleaning business – or whatever the topic of the e-book.

7. Proof your text.

I find it impossible to proof my own words. I wrote them that way in the first place so I, inherently, believe they’re perfect – even if there’s a typo here and there.

That’s why I ask others to proof my e-books. I pay them for their time, but if a couple of proofreaders find spelling mistakes or inconsistencies in formatting, it’s money well spent.

8. Get the biggest (Click)bank for your buck.

Sure, sell or give-away the e-book on your own web site, but open an account at clickbank.com and upload your masterpiece. Select strong keywords – the same ones used to optimize your site.

Writers love Clickbank. Once they’re up and running, web site owners and just plain folks download their e-books for a price. Authors get to set the price ( most tend to keep it low to see more volume) and the nice folks at Clickbank deposit their earnings directly into their bank accounts. Too cool. Totally passive income.

So, you have direct sales and sales through Clickbank. That’s more revenues in your pocket.

9. Choose topics with legs.

If you write an e-book on current events, it’s out of date in about an hour-and-a-half.

Stick with topics that will interest buyers today, tomorrow and 20 years from now so you keep earning from work you did last millennium.

10. The Three Topics All Readers Will Buy

Family, health and finance.

And, if you can combine two of these topics, you’ve got a winner. “Building Your Child’s College Fund” has finance and family appeal.

Also, target the needs-driven buyer – the one who needs good, solid, reliable information like NOW. A guy who’s facing foreclosure in 72 hours is a needs-driven buyer for your “How to Stop Foreclosure Even If The Sherriff Nailed The Auction Notice To Your Front Door.”Okay, a little long, but someone facing foreclosure in a few days or weeks will pay $59.95 for a download that can prevent immediate foreclosure.

But the e-book has a responsibility to deliver the goods – to solve the problems of that needs-driven buyer. “How to Find a Job In a Shrinking Economy,” Easing Into Retirement,” “Finding the Perfect Mate.”

Family, finance and health – the three topics about which any reader will read.

Using e-books as opt-in bait, or as a source of revenue is a common practice on the web. Unfortunately, much of this so-called information is stuffed with fluff. Scams.

Make your e-books deep in value, deep in practical, actionable information and buyers will be glad that you spent the time to write such an entertaining, informative e-book.

And you’ll generate revenues. Awesome.

PayPal has extended their services to Malaysia which saw the introduction of 2 new features that allows transaction to be done in local currency & direct Paypal balance withdrawal into local bank account.

This is definitely a good news for every Paypal users in Malaysia as they can save up a significant amount of money if they choose to withdraw money directly to Malaysia bank account. Unlike credit cards, there’s no additional charges to withdraw Paypal balance into bank account if the withdrawal amount is more than RM400.

If you are thinking of opening a Paypal account but have no idea on how to apply, here’s an easy guide on how to get started.

Open a new Paypal account

1. Type in Paypal.com in your browser’s address bar.

2. Once you reach there, click on the sign up link right at the bottom of the sign in form on the top left corner.

3. Choose from either one of the 3 options available:

Personal, Premium & Business.

**Personal account is for individuals who shop online, premier account is for individuals who buy and sell online, while business is for merchants who use a company or group name.**

4. Type in your personal information & choose to link your credit card (If you have one) with your Paypal account.

5. Done! You have just opened your Paypal account.

** Once you have typed in your credit card number, you will be charged 1.95USD. In your credit card statement, there will be a verification code which you will need to key in to verify your credit card & the charges will be refund to you soon. **

What are the charges for online transaction?

FAQ
What if I don’t have a credit card? Can I use debit card?
- Yes you can, as long as those cards have Visa or Mastercard logo on it

What is the minimum withdrawal amount?
- RM40.00

What is the bank withdrawal free?
- If RM400.00 MYR or more is withdrawn, you will NOT be charged.
- If less than RM400.00 MYR is withdrawn, you WILL be charged RM3.00
- Return Fee = RM15

What is the credit card withdrawal free?
Withdrawal Fee – 5.00 USD
Minimum Withdrawal Amount – 10.00 USD
Return Fee – 10.00 USD

** If the information in your withdrawal request is incomplete or incorrect, PayPal will return the withdrawal amount to your PayPal account and charge a return fee (RM15). Your card issuer might charge additional fees. **