Imagine a place where people can go to sell their stuff they don’t want anymore to people that actually do want it. You know the old saying, “what’s one person trash is another person’s treasure.” But I’m talking about a place where you can put those old clothes, or that autographed basketball from Michael Jordan up for millions and millions of people to see and bid on. I’m talking about a place where you can put these items up for all these people to see and you don’t even have to leave your home! Well stop imagining because their is a place of such opportunity, but where there’s opportunity to make money off of those things you no longer want, there’s also opportunity for a well planned scam to take place. As easy as it is to buy something from a seller on ebay, it is just as easy to give your money away without receiving anything in return.

Ebay is great marketplace to buy and sell products. It’s where a regular old joe can auction off items he wants to get rid. Or it can be a place where someone can start up their on store and sell off their products. It’s great for those people who want to start their on business and have some good suppliers because there is no need for business licenses and legal stuff or even a physical building for your business (unless you need somewhere to store your inventory). You don’t even have to worry about going through all that merchant stuff because paypal can take care of taking credit card payments for you.

Yea Ebay sounds like a great place to make a little or lot of extra money, but their are a lot of things you should know and watch out for if you plan to use Ebay.

(If you know how to use Ebay and are familiar with it you’re free to SKIP the next two paragraphs)

First I want to explain how you can use Ebay. Lets say I have a pair of jeans I would like to sell on Ebay. First I would take some digital pictures of my jeans to show how they look and the condition of them. Then I would head to Ebay to Sell My Item. Ebay has a wizard that would walk me through designing my post which will feature my jeans. This is where I can type a description of my jeans. This is also where I would upload the pictures I took of my jeans so potential bidders can see what they are bidding on. Ebay will allow me to set a Starting bid (if I want one, or else it would start at $0), Reserve price (which is the min price I would let my jeans sell for), and a Buy it Now price (which is self-explanatory). I can also choose how long I want the auction to run for (1 day, 3 days, 5 days, etc.). There is a spot for me to enter how much I will charge for shipping, and also a spot for me to explain a return policy. Ebay also has extra stuff I can add to my post to make it stand out, such as bold, outline, color, themes, etc. Now I wouldn’t go crazy with the extras because Ebay charges nice little fees for every little thing you do to your add. After I’m done editing my add, Ebay will tell me how much my insertion fees are and will inform me of how my Final Value Fee will be calculated. From then I would just watch my jeans in My Ebay and hope I get some bids.

Now lets look at how to buy something on Ebay. Let’s say I wanted to buy my son a Nintendo Wii for his birthday on Ebay. If would search for Nintendo Wii and see who all has them for sale. When I find one I’m interested in I would click on it to read about it. From their I could keep looking, Watch the Item, or Place a Bid on the item. If I decided I wanted to bid on the item I would just click Place a Bid and would would input the highest price I am willing to pay for the item (even though Ebay will only display a bid high enough to win the item within my max bid), confirm it, and boom. If someone outbids me, then I must decide how bad I want that Wii. Let’s say I won the Wii, I would need to pay for the Wii (usually through PayPal depending on what the Seller accepts) and then the Seller should ship out my Wii asap.

Now that I have gave a brief summary on how you can use Ebay to buy and sell, It’s time to go over what you need to know and watch out for on ebay.

One of the best tools that Ebay offers you for protection is the Feedback tool. You can actually see what other Ebay users have to say about someone you may be dealing with on Ebay. Let’s say you are bidding on a high priced item and you just don’t feel comfortable paying someone this much money before you even get to physically see the item in person. Well in this instance you could look at the seller’s feedback and see what others had to say about their experience purchasing from this seller. The higher the feedback score the better.

Now for some tips on how to watch out for those people that are just out to get your money, or item without paying up. I’m talking about Ebay scammers. These are people who either put up a fake post to sell you on something that you will never get, or win you auction and don’t pay up, instead they try to get you to send the item to an unverified Paypal address before they even pay you.

To protect yourself from the Fake Posters…

-Contact the seller
-Check feedback
-Look over the description of the item to see if it sounds ligit
-Check payment methods

It’s good to contact the seller to see if they will respond. That shows that it is a real person selling the item and not a robot generated post designed by a scammer. Usually a fake poster will not have any feedback, but that doesn’t always mean they’re a scammer, this could just be their first time selling, it just means to beware. I wouldn’t buy a high priced item from someone with 0 or negative feedback. Also they may have very good feedback, but it could all be in another language, I wouldn’t trust this either. You should only buy from someone who speaks the same language as you so you can communicate with them. Also pay attention to their location. It’s much safer to buy from the location you are located in. For example, if you live in the US, I would’t recommend you buy something from someone located in Nigeria. It’s also a good idea to look over the description to see if the person actually put some effort into describing the item. A scammer probably wouldn’t put much in the description because they probably don’t even have the item to begin with. Also should notice what payment methods they accept. Scammers usually aren’t Paypal verified (but they can be sometimes) so they may say they take credit cards, checks, or money orders to get you to send them the money without going through Paypal. Scammers love Western Union and moneygrams because they’re instant and virtually untraceable.

To protect yourself from the Winner Scammers…

-Watch your auction closely
-Never send your item to an address other than their Paypal address
-Never make arrangements to sell the item outside of Ebay
-DO NOT SEND YOU ITEM OUT UNTIL THE MONEY HAS HIT YOU PAYPAL ACCOUNT!!!

When you are typing up the description of your item, make sure to put your “Terms and Conditions” in the description. What I mean is tell what your limits are as far as shipping, bidding, and any and everything you want to let people know, put it in there. When your auctions is getting down to the nitty gritty, watch it closely. (I always cancel and block bids from people with 0 or negative feedback unless they contacted me as per stated in my “Terms and Conditions”) While you are editing your post Ebay allows you to choose an option that will block all bidders with negative feedback, it’s a great idea to turn this on. While people are bidding on your items check on their feedback to see how it looks. You are in control of your auction so you have the right to cancel and block bids that look suspicious. Let’s say someone wins your auctions and you get a response from them saying not to send your item to their paypal address, they want you to send it to an address in Nigeria (and you live in the US). I bet you when you get an e-mail like this they haven’t paid you yet and they are not going to. Even if you have gotten an e-mail stating that “You’ve Got Funds in Your Paypal Account” don’t send your item yet. ALWAYS physically log into your Paypal account and see if you have been paid yet. A lot of scammers on Ebay have started sending “fake” Paypal e-mails that say that the money has been transferred to your Paypal, or the money has been processed but will not show in your Paypal until they have a valid tracking #. It’s all Bull, don’t fall for it. Never process a shipment until you have been paid, period. A great way to spot fake Paypal e-mails is to look at the sender of the e-mail. If it comes from a domain that’s not Paypal, then it’s probably fake.

In order to get rid of viruses you first have to know if you have any malicious files on your computer. If you suspect you have an infection then you should first run an anti-virus scan to see if you indeed are infected with viruses. There are plenty of anti-virus programs you can use to perform a scan. A free one I can recommend is Avast Anti-Virus. It’s a great anti-virus for home users.

Some common symptoms of virus infections are:

-Computer operations slowing down
-Lots of pop-ups
-Files become missing
-Messages saying drive is full and you know it shouldn’t be
-Strange activity such as programs opening by itself or closing by itself, or computer shutting down by itself.
-etc.

When running a virus scan be sure to physically disconnect from the internet (unplug the network cable, or turn of your wireless). After running a full system scan for viruses, the anti-virus program should be able to fix any problems or infections it found. If it can’t then make a note of the files that are infected and quarantine them so the infection doesn’t spread. If the virus software cannot fix the infections it found, it’s not a bad idea to try another vendor’s virus scan just to see if it can fix the infections. It is not recommended to just go find the infected file and delete it UNLESS you know for sure that the infected file is not needed for system operation.

Most good virus programs can fix most infections, but if you have a bad infection and substantial file and data damage then you may just want to take the ultimate step and just re-format you hard disk which will erase the entire drive and prepare it for fresh operating system install. If you opt to do this then make sure you have your Windows installation disk handy, and be sure to back up everything you would like to save because formatting the disk will erase EVERYTHING.

Performing a format and OS re-install is very easy. Just boot from the installation disk and follow the prompts. The installation actually allows you to format the drive before installing the OS.

If your infections lie on the hard disk then formatting the disk will definitely get rid of them. Some viruses are designed to alter the CMOS RAM, but this is not usual, a format of the hard disk should do the trick 98.9% of the time. Be sure to follow the advise in the Virus Prevention article to keep from being infected again.

I’m sure you have heard people using the word Format when you talk about computers and drives, but what does it mean to actually format a drive. Formatting, blowing out, wiping clean, or emptying a hard disk simply means erasing all data from the disk and preparing it for fresh Operating System install. When you format a disk it removes everything that was stored on the disk, fixes any errors (unless you’re doing a quick format) and re-writes the file tables, and mbr (Master Boot Record). Formatting is the ultimate cleaning process for any hard disk. It’s actually a good idea to format you disk after a while and re-install your OS and programs (maybe once a year) just to give it cleaning. But always remember to back up anything on the computer you want to keep and put back into it after you re-install the operating system.

People usually format their disk when they are manipulating partitions, encounter viruses, or get a computer from someone else and just want to clean it out and start fresh. Before you go formatting your drives all willy nilly, please remember and take into consideration that formatting your disk will delete EVERYTHING on the disk, including the operating system (Windows, Linux, etc.). So if you are interested in doing a disk format for a fresh start then you need to make sure you are prepared to install an operating system.

There are different ways of formatting because there are so many different circumstances that people want to format. When you are setting up a dual boot, there are different ways you can go about formatting the partition you want the secondary OS to go on. If you just want to erase everything and start fresh then you will need either the OS Installation Disk(s), a boot disk, or the OEM OS disk(s) that may or may not have came with your computer.

The easiest way to start fresh is to just use the installation disk(s) of the OS you are installing (assuming you are using Windows and installing Windows). When you go to install Windows it will allow you to format the disk during the installation.

Ok lets face it, we all would love to “Get Rich Quick” right. Or even more believable, “Work from Home”, am I correct. Well there are a lot of scams out there that promise these very things, but please DO NOT fall for them. I’m going to explain to you how to avoid getting scammed by those oh so good sounding scams on the internet, job boards, or even in the newspapers.

Most of the people that are lured into these heinous schemes either hate their jobs, tired of being away from home so much, or are just looking for another source of income. So if you are reading this then I take it you are wanting a way to make money, but don’t want to be scammed because you have heard the terror stories. Well I’ll be the first to say all those stories are true, and trust me, you don’t want to be a victim of a scam if you haven’t already, because it’s not a great experience at all.

First of all, I’m speaking from experience as a person who hated his job and just didn’t believe that this was life. You know, having to go to the same place everyday 9 hrs a day 5 days a week, trading your time for money, I was just one of those people that wouldn’t settle for that. I had heard all these stories about people making money online and from ebay and stuff and I wanted my piece of the pie. Especially considering how computer savvy I was, I thought I could never get scammed. Man was I wrong. I had fallen for so many scams and wasted so much money, I found myself back at the employment office looking for that same ole’ 9-5. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone so I’ve put together some ways to watch out for scams and to make your OWN money online based on my experiences and observations.

Most importantly you should understand that a scam is nothing more than a scheme that someone thought up that would make THEM money. They just went about it in an unethical way, as in persuading the victim to give them money before they knew that what they were paying for isn’t what they expected at all.

If you don’t take anything from this article, please remember these 4 things…

*There is no such thing as “Get Rich Quick”
*There is no such thing as “Easy Money” (legally)
*If you aren’t told exactly what you are going to be doing to make money before they are asking for your money, then it is a scam (most important)
*If it sounds too good to be true, then guess what, it probably is

The truth is, to make money online takes time and commitment, and there are ultimately only 3 ways to make money online…

*Selling something (whether it be on ebay or your own site)
*Advertising
*Affiliate Programs

These are ultimately the only legitimate ways to make money online. Yes there are some companies that do actually outsource work and have employees that work from home, but believe it or not, they don’t make much money ($8 - $10 per hr). If you are trying to get rich online, then good luck, but if you are trying to develop a side hustle, or eventually have something take over your main source of income, then the 3 ways I just mentioned are great things to do. Yes it is possible to make a lot of money online selling, advertising, and taking part in affiliate programs, but it takes a lot of hard work and dedication (not necessarily money) to get it off the ground to where you are making any money at all. Most people don’t stick it out and that’s why the majority of people who do this fail, because they just give up, but remember it takes TIME and PATIENCE.

For those scams, I mean sites, that promise you will make a fortune in a week, please don’t waste your money, or time reading about it, because trust me, it is a scam. I mean think about it, if you really could make thousands of dollars in a couple of weeks, don’t you think everyone would be doing it? This is coming from someone who has tried those schemes and know what they are all about…nothing but making money off of the people that fall for it. So please don’t become a victim, be an entrepreneur. Most people say that it takes money to make money, not necessarily. If you are planning on doing the Selling method of making money online, then yes it probably will take some startup cost to buy your product. But if you are pursuing a career online utilizing another method, then it shouldn’t take much money, if any, at all.

One way to make money online by incorporating advertising and affiliates is to develop a blog. It costs almost nothing to start up a site ($4-$10 a month for hosting, and around $10 a yr for a domain name), think of an idea you know a lot about (free), and throw some advertisements (adsense, widegetbucks, etc.) and affiliates (Amazon, etc.) in the page (free) along with great articles written by you (free). This is not the only way to make money online, but it is one of the fastest growing ways to make money for those who don’t really have anything to sell. You can still be an entrepreneur by providing great information and knowledge and having sponsors (advertisers, and affiliates) pay for it.

Scammers prey on those people that don’t know how to watch out for them. Those people who hate their jobs, need more money, or just see something that sounds too good to be true. They love these people, so know that they are going to say whatever they have to say to get you to come aboard. You can be reading an article from one of these scammers and they can have you so into it, revealing relevant information such as how they didn’t have any money before this program came about, or how they don’t have to do anything because their proven system is totally automated to make them money. They tell stories about how they go on vacation every week, and can spend all their time with their kids, and their lives are just so blissful. It’s all BULL just too get you to pay them for great observation on how you or anyone would love to live. These people are salespeople, and great ones at that. But the product they are selling is a lie just to get your money, and possibly your identity. The next time you read one of these scammer’s articles, I bet you want see anywhere in the article that tells you exactly how you will go about making this fortune. They will tell you nothing more than their fantasy lifestyle, and that you won’t have to do anything but sit back and watch your bank account grow. They tell you this because that’s what you want to hear, am I wrong. That’s the American Dream, other than to be famous, to be rich without having to lift a finger.

In conclusion, just remember, to make money online is possible, but not as easy as those scams make you think it is. It takes hard work and time, because there is no such thing as legal fast money, except for winning the lottery that is. Also remember, that if an opportunity doesn’t tell you EXACTLY how you are going to be making money before you pay them, then it is a scam.

A Motherboard (or System Board) is a one of the most essential parts of not just the computer, but many electronics such as televisions and stereos. Also referred to as a Mobo, this component is in charge of relaying information between all the different components connected to it. It’s safe to say the microprocessor is the heart of the computer and the motherboard is the body and structure. The system board itself is made up of chips, transistors, and circuits. The different components, such as the video card, pci cards, and the memory modules talk to each other by transferring data and information along the circuits, or buses on the system board. Pretty much all the internal components of a computer are connected to the system board.

Every motherboard operates off of a BIOS (Basic Input/Output System), which is basically a small program inside a chip on the board that controls how the motherboard operates and handles the components connected to it. When you first turn your computer on, before your operating system loads up, you are seeing your BIOS in action. All those gobbled up words running across the screen is your BIOS running its self tests to see what all is connected to the motherboard, and if there is any problems with any of the components.

When building your own computer, making sure the motherboard you choose has the correct socket for the processor you choose is crucial. Most computer builders pick out a processor first and then choose a motherboard accordingly. So I you were to pick out a Socket 478 Pentium 4 processor then you have to make sure you pick out a motherboard that will fit a Socket 478 Pentuem 4 processor. It’s also always a good idea to purchase a motherboard with more slots (pci and memory) than you currently need, so you can have room for expansion.

A common question people are having these days is if they should purchase the very common desktop computer, or should they go for the portability of a notebook (laptop) computer. The answer to that question depends heavily on the person who’s in the market for the computer.

The questions you should ask yourself before choosing is…

*What are you going to be using the computer for?
*How often do you travel?
*Would you ever like to add or manipulate internal components of your computer?
*Do you have, or plan to have a lot of peripherals (external components such as printers, web cam, etc.)?

These are just some basic questions you should ask yourself before choosing between a desktop or laptop. Let’s look at the differences between the two.

A desktop is a stationary machine. Which means that it is not meant to be moved around a lot, it’s designed to stay in one spot. That one spot is usually on a desk (hints the name desktop), or some type of table top. Because desktops are stationary they have more bulky parts to them which come standard such as the stand-alone monitor, the tower or enclosure which holds the internal components of the computer, and the keyboard and mouse.

Because the desktops’ enclosure are so roomy, they can generally house components such as multiple memory modules, multiple hard disks , multiple processors , etc. The increasing size of hard disks these days are virtually endless. The size of a typical hard disk for a desktop can range anywhere between 60 GB - 300 GB but can go much higher. Desktop enclosures usually contain multiple drive bays that allow you to expand you storage space by adding additional hard disks to your system. The desktop’s memory size is usually anywhere between 256 MB - 4 GB and can be expandable. Today’s system boards (motherboards) usually contain expandable memory slots for adding additional RAM to your system also.

Another reason desktops will not be going out of style anytime soon is because of the ease of customization. A lot of people build there own desktops by simply buying the components and putting it together their selves. “How Stuff Works” has a great article on how to build your own desktop. The main reason people build their own desktops is because they want it to do exactly what they want it to do. When you build your own system you have complete control over what goes into your computer and you don’t have anything in it you don’t put in it.

Shopping for a computer in a store is like shopping for house. You are looking for a house with this many rooms, this many bathrooms, a patio, glass sliding doors, catwalk, etc. It may take you a while to find that dream house, that’s why many people opt to build their own homes from scratch, making sure that they get that dream house. Same idea with computer building. Some people, especially gamers, want that perfect machine and the only way they will get it is to build it their selves.

Laptops (or notebooks) on the other hand were designed for one reason only, and that’s portability. Unlike desktops, laptops can be toted around pretty much anywhere. They can be used as a portable DVD player for entertainment on the plane. Laptops are great for giving a presentation to your co-workers at the job. They are also preferred by people who just don’t like sitting at a desk, they would rather lay across their bed or sit comfortably on their couch while they surf the web. Laptops come with just one major unit in the box which is the notebook computer itself. The monitor, keyboard, mouse pad, and all internal components are built-in to one incredibly small unit which can sit easily in a user’s lap (hints the name laptop). For the compact nature of this system usually comes a steeper price than of a desktop. Laptops can do just about everything a desktop can do with minor limitations.

First of all, laptops generally come with about 4-6 usb ports, so if at any given time you need a web cam, external mouse, usb printer, mic, external hard drive, external floppy drive, 3 flash drives, usb memory card reader, and a usb wireless adapter all connected at the same time, then you’re probably not going to enjoy having all of those cables going everywhere, especially since your going to need an external usb hub to seat all those extra usb devices. Laptop’s internal hard disk’s are usually anywhere between 40 GB - 200 GB and can be bigger. Laptops do not generally have expansion bays for adding additional internal hard disks, but you can purchase storage volumes in the form of a pc card which can be used through the card slot of a laptop. There are also external hard drives, flash drives, and memory cards that can be purchased to increase storage space. Memory (RAM) in laptops range anywhere between 256 MB - 2 GB and can be higher. In some laptops the memory is expandable, but expanding memory in notebooks is just not as common and in desktops.

The downfall to laptops for the picky consumer is the fact that they can’t be built. You can’t just go out and buy a laptop enclosure and components and put together a laptop. This is a problem not just for people that like that customization, but when there is a problem with an internal component, the problem generally can only be fixed by the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer). In Conclusion, neither a desktop nor laptop is better than the other, it’s all about what purpose it is going to serve for the user. How portable you need it to be, what you are going to be using it for, and do you plan to do any internal upgrades or customizations are the main questions you should ask yourself before choosing which system to opt for.

An Operating System is what controls your computer’s hardware and software. It is responsible for the overall operation of your computer system and components and their interconnectivity. In other words, through the OS is how you talk to your computer and tell it what you want it to do. Without it your computer would just be a bunch or hardware and components connected together sitting in an enclosure. Microsoft Windows leads the OS industry because of it’s user-friendly GUI (Graphical User Interface) among many other reasons. Windows XP is probably the most popular in use right now. XP earned it’s popularity because of its increased stability over the previous Windows versions. It’s also very user-friendly, and very easy to maneuver.

Microsoft likes to give different flavors of their OS’s such as Windows XP Professional, Media Center Edition, or the even newer Vista Home Edition, Home Premium and Ultimate. The different flavors are meant to aim at different audiences. The Home editions are for the general computer user who prepares essays, surfs the web, burns some cd’s here and there, and don’t really care about the super visual effects that Ultimate can give them.

Apple is Microsoft’s biggest competitor with their line of Mac operating systems which come loaded on their iMacs and MacBooks. Their are also open source (meaning freely distributed code) Operating Systems such as Linux which is based on the Unix platform. Linux comes in a variety of different flavors because anyone can take the code, have fun with it, and develop their on distribution of Linux. Distributions of Linux include Red Hat, Knoppix, SuSe, MandrakeSoft, and many more.

The microprocessor is basically a silicon chip that houses your computer’s CPU (Central Processing Unit). The terms CPU and Microprocessor are generally used interchangeably. This is the heart of the computer where are the logical processing takes place. Any time the user requests an action (as in clicking on something, typing something, printing something, etc.) the request goes straight to the microprocessor from the OS where the CPU decides what to do with the instruction. If a user clicks the Internet Explorer icon the request goes from the OS (Operating System), to the microprocessor, to the hard disk where the program in stored, and then the program is moved to memory where it is held until terminated.

A Hard Disk (Hard Drive) is where everything is stored on your computer. All of your programs, files, OS(’s) (Operating System(s)), and any other data that you save or install in all stored on your Hard Disk. In computer terms it is proper to spell disk in hard disk with a k rather than c (disc) because disc is used for cd’s and the term disk is used for the magnetic disks which are used in hard drives. Hard disks, unlike RAM (Memory), is considered non-volatile which means it keeps information stored even after the computer is turned off. The amount of information a hard drive can hold is usually measured in Megabytes (MB’s) or more often these days Gigabytes (GB’s). They also have some servers that use hard disk’s that hold massive amounts of information that amount to Terabytes (TB’s).

The most popular hard disks fall into two main categories: Parallel ATA and Serial ATA. Parallel ATA is more less the standard for hard disks but Serial ATA is becoming more and more popular. The main differences between the two are cables size, speed, and price. PATA hard disks use big flat bulky cables to connect to your power supply and motherboard within your tower enclosure. SATA hard disks use a serial cable to connect to the different components with your computer. Because SATA hard disks are still fairly new, they are generally more expensive than PATA drives because of there faster speeds and newer technology used.

A hard drive is basically a magnetic disk enclosed in a metal casing that spins. It kind of works like a cd in a cd player. When you request information to be retrieved from the disk, the read/write heads on the drives locates and find the wanted data and then transfers it to the system’s memory where it is held until either the user terminates it or the computer is shut off. The hard disk is a very important component in the computer system. Without the hard drive, there would be no working computer system.

Memory is just another word for the technical term RAM (Random Access Memory). It is basically a holding place for data so it can be easily retrieved by the microprocessor. Unlike a Hard Disk, RAM is volatile meaning when you turn your computer off, whatever is stored in your memory (RAM) is lost. Please do not get memory confused with hard disk space, they are two totally different things. There are many different types of RAM, which usually fall into these two main categories: Static RAM and Dynamic RAM. To keep it simple the main differences between the two are speed, space, and price. Static RAM is much faster than Dynamic RAM because Static RAM doesn’t have to continually refresh as Dynamic RAM does. Static RAM is generally also capable of holding much more information than Dynamic RAM. With that being said you can see Static RAM is generally more expensive than Dynamic RAM.

Every time you open a program, your adding data to your holding place (memory). The more programs and processes you have running at the same time, the more memory you are taking up, and the slower your computer’s performance will be.

So say your computer has 512 MB’s (Megabytes) of RAM and you take a look at your processes and you are using about 400 MB’s or memory, you may want to close some programs. When you get to the point where you have used up almost all of your memory and virtual memory, your computer with give you a message stating that you cannot open anymore programs or applications until your close some of the ones you have running.

You can see how much RAM you have by following these steps…

(Windows XP)

1. Click Start
2. Right-Click on My Computer
3. Click Properties