HOW TO GET A VERIFIED TWITTER ACCOUNT

WHY ARE VERIFIED TWITTER ACCOUNTS IMPORTANT?
♦ Improved brand credibility – As a pro-cricket player you recognize that you can enhance your earnings through endorsements and gaining media exposure. Verifying your Twitter account can enhance your social media presence making your personal brand more attractive for endorsements.
♦ Distinguish yourself from parody and fake accounts – You’re likely to have been agreed to a code of conduct for social media platforms with your club and/or national team. Gaining a verified Twitter account can ensure the actions of another account aren’t mistaken as being your own.
♦ Improved social search presence – A verified Twitter account can help fans find you on the Twitter search tool. Hands up if you’d like some additional followers!
IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER ABOUT A TWITTER VERIFIED STATUS
♦ Your follower count is not a factor in the criteria for verification
♦ Twitter chooses who gets verified
♦ It doesn’t stop users from creating a duplicate and parody account
♦ It doesn’t guarantee increased followers or reach

SIX EASY STEPS TO GETTING A VERIFIED TWITTER ACCOUNT

If you think you fit the bill, here is how to go about getting your Twitter account verified.

STEP 1: DETERMINE IF YOU QUALIFY FOR A VERIFIED TWITTER ACCOUNT.
Twitter verifies as few accounts as possible and only for legitimate reasons. Reasons for asking Twitter include being a highly recognizable cricket player, cricket club, brand or cricket agent, etc., or if your name and likeness is parodied or impersonated on multiple fake Twitter accounts, leading to identity confusion.

STEP 2: EMBED A TWITTER “FOLLOW” BUTTON ON YOUR WEBSITE
Twitter recommends embedding a Twitter “Follow” button on your official website as the best alternative to verification. This allows you to obtain followers directly from your official site, which is very helpful if there are multiple Twitter accounts that use your name.

STEP 3: READ THE TWITTER VERIFIED ACCOUNT TERMS
These terms explain what a verified account is, what it means to be verified, who has the verified badge and identifying a verified account. They can be found here.

STEP 4: FIND OUT HOW TO APPLY FOR A VERIFIED ACCOUNT
Send a direct message to this address.

Be sure to have the following information ready:
♦ Account name
♦ Full name
♦ Location
♦ Official website (you will be given a suggestion to put the Twitter logo or badge on your official website to speed up verification)
♦ Bio information (your 160 character profile summary)
♦ Primary contact name (you or the individual who manages the account)
♦ Additional contact information


STEP 5: WAIT FOR TWITTER TO RESPOND
If you don’t get a reply shortly, you can contact Twitter by mail or through Twitter. Keep in mind that Twitter deals with a high volume of verification requests, and that it focuses first on the most “highly sought users.


STEP 6: FOLLOW TWITTER’S INSTRUCTIONS FOR VERIFYING YOUR ACCOUNT
If Twitter decides that you qualify for a verified account, they will reach out to you via direct message. Click the link in the direct message to be taken to finish the process.
Learn how to Tweet effectively – You’ll be asked to choose best tweet out of two tweets. There will be no negative impact if you don’t answer correctly.
Connect with other Interesting Twitter Users – Connect with other verified accounts. It helps in making your account more legitimate.
Protect your Account – You’ll be asked to add a phone number through which Twitter can contact you if they find any problem with your account.

Once you have completed all the above steps, your Twitter account will be verified.


HOW TO GET A VERIFIED FACEBOOK ACCOUNT
Facebook has also recently adopted a verified status, but there is no mechanism to request verification. Instead, Facebook recommends that professional cricket players, cricket clubs, agents and brands, who believe that they are being impersonated, should report a fake account.

In the event that Facebook attempts to verify your account you will need to submit a government-issued photo ID, which Facebook promises to delete immediately after verification.




SCREENSHOTS OF THE FACEBOOK VERIFIED PROCESS

For now, Facebook is taking charge of this task by itself. At the moment there is no action that can be taken by professional cricket players, cricket clubs, agents and brands to verify your Facebook account.


HERE’S WHY YOUR PHONE’S BATTERY IS SWOLLEN

Suddenly, your battery can’t fit in your phone anymore or can barely fit. You can’t afford for that to happen right now. The question is: why is it swollen in the first place? By the way, it’s unfortunate, but when your battery gets swollen, it cannot be fixed – you have to get a new one. That’s why it’s a good idea to figure that out so that you can take measures that will prevent your battery from swelling the next time.

The following are Three Main Reasons that may cause your smartphone or cellphone battery to swell:

Overcharging: This usually isn’t an issue when you use the charger that came with your phone. However, there are times when that charger can malfunction and cause your battery to be overcharged. As a matter of fact, your phone should not be left on the charger for very long after the battery has been fully charged. This can definitely add to the extent of the problem. You should also know that Lithium Ion batteries don’t react well to overcharging at all, so be very careful with those.

Heat: Extremely high temperatures in the battery as a result of charging or rapid discharging from using the device, could have an effect on the chemistry of the battery. This negative chemical effect could cause your battery to get swollen.

Faulty Manufacturing: This is a case of the manufacturer’s issue. It’s not your fault; it’s a problem which occurred within the manufacturing process, that’s why your poorly-made battery has swollen.

If at any point, you realize that your battery has swollen, you need to get rid of it immediately. Your swollen battery can leak and damage your phone or it can even explode and start a fire. Don’t take the chance. Try to replace the battery with an original one just like it, because it will be safer and it will also perform more effectively within your phone.

All you need to do is come to us. We’re here to cater to your mobile needs. If you want to repair the smart phone you already have or unlock it, don’t forget us! Give us a call, as we are Ottawa’s preferred cell phone repair shop, with a complete inventory of cell phone parts and accessories to get your wireless phone fixed ASAP. We’ll have you back talking, texting, and using your phone in no time!


5 Ways to Keep Your Photography Safe

Let’s face it, we’re all addicted to taking pictures. We take pictures, we share pictures, we post pictures everywhere. But what about those pictures that mean the most to us? Or what if photography is your livelihood? Whether you’re a regular Joe or photography pro, the good news is that you have a lot of options for keeping your photos safe.

Using more than one method of backup is the best strategy in keeping those treasured moments safe. These next five tips will go a long way in making sure that you never lose a shot, no matter your budget.

1. Social Photo Storage Sites
The most popular photo storage sites include Flickr, Photobucket, Shutterfly, andPicasa. Storage on these sites is free up to a certain point, with an affordable monthly or yearly fee for users who wish to up their storage or bandwidth limits. Your average photographer will find these sites very useful in either the ‘Standard’ or ‘Pro’ format.

Social storage sites are popular for their usability, for their seamless integration with Facebook andTwitter, and also for their portability in offering desktop, tablet and mobile apps, enabling consumers to edit and share on the fly no matter where they are.

Picasa, being a Google product, interfaces easily with various other Google products, making it a desirable storage site for those consumers already enamored with all things Google. All these sites are considered ‘off-premise’, and should be used as a backup to your on-premise digital copies.

2. Cloud Storage Sites
If you still need an off-premise backup without all the social networking or photo editing, then Cloud storage is your new best friend. Photographers with libraries of data will most certainly prefer these sites, since unlimited storage capacity can be had, for a price. Cloud storagesites need an internet connection, and that has to be factored into the final cost.

The ability to access your files from any computer is certainly an advantage, especially for professional photographers who need to be able to display their work for clients all over the world.
Popular cloud storage sites that specialize in digital photo files include Mozy, Google Drive,SkyDrive, and Dropbox. All these sites aim to keep your files private, but you can choose to share through more social networks if you wish. Keep in mind that not all internet companies last forever. Should any off-premise website that you use go out of business, your data would most likely be lost forever.

3. Hard Drives, External Hard Drives, Thumb Drives and Disks
Today’s cameras are becoming increasingly advanced. Cameras with higher resolution and megapixels create larger digital files. The bigger the files, the harder it is to store all of them in the same place. CD’s/DVD’s and thumb (USB Flash) drives are very convenient, but they don’t store a ton of data. Part-time photographers will benefit from the cost-effectiveness and convenience of a USB Flash drive.

Photographers with a higher demand for storage space can try buying the most expensive computer out there with the most hard drive space, or they can simply invest in an external hard drive.External hard drive are the most cost-effective way to add storage space without having to buy a new computer.

They come in different sizes and speeds depending on your needs. The bigger the hard drive, the more you’re going to have to deal with certain issues like power requirements, heat and noise. The main disadvantage of drives that offer ‘on-premise’ storage is that they degrade over time. Having your photos on multiple drives will mitigate that risk.

4. RAID/NAS Systems
RAID stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks. This technology allows users to create multiple copies of a file across multiple linked hard drives. The overarching strategy remains the same. The more copies of a single file that you possess, the less there is a chance that one single act can destroy all your files. If one of the hard drives becomes corrupted, your backups will remain safe.

A RAID system can be significantly more expensive than having one or two separate external hard drives, but depending on your storage needs, can be much faster and more effective at keeping your photos safe. Having this redundancy allows consumers to fix any problems with certain hard drives while the rest of the system keeps plugging away. TheseRAID systems are recommended for photographers with serious storage demands and deep wallets.

NAS stands for network-attached storage, which operates similarly to RAID, but is connected to your computer through a local area network (LAN) instead of a single plug. This allows the user to connect to their photos without having to drag the standalone RAID system with them. They can be more expensive than their RAID counterparts, but they also don’t need a host computer to function. NAS systems are more useful for photographers with large businesses that require quite a bit of storage capacity while still allowing that person the flexibility and security of downloading those photos from anywhere that connects to that same LAN.

5. When Too Safe isn’t Safe Enough
Most people that try and protect their valuables at home end up buying a safe of some sort. You could buy an external hard drive and put that in a fireproof safe, but why take two steps when you only need one? Enter theIoSafe Solo 3G, a fireproof and waterproof external hard drive with a storage capacity of 3TB. This device is also heavy enough that nobody is going to pick it up and steal it from you.


In the end, managing your photos can be safe and easy no matter if you’re an Average Joe or a true Pro. There are countless products, many of them free of charge. External Hard Drives are finally becoming cost-effective and therefore offer the most bang for your buck for photographers. Technology is a beautiful thing, and as it changes, make sure you stay up to date so that you never lose those precious memories.

What It Takes To Be a Freelance Photographer

Being a freelancer translates into being your own boss, whether it is as freelance travel writer, photographer or blog writer. With this freedom, comes more responsibility. The small details that are taken care of by sales, organizational, marketing and administrative staff in a company all need to be handled by you. Being a freelance photographer is great, as long as some considerations are made.

Being a freelancer
By launching yourself as a freelance photographer, you will be considered self-employed. This means that you need to establish yourself as a business entity that runs legally. The business and tax details of your area or region should be researched and understood so that you can formally organize your work. In several regions this is known as “sole proprietorship”.

Be a professional
Being a creative professional like a travel writer or blog writer, it is imperative for photographers to be passionate about their jobs. But it is important to remember that quality is a vital component. The product promised should exceed your client’s expectations and it should always be delivered on time. The pricing should be quoted at the beginning of the project and should not be changed unless the order changes as well. Rather than creating what you like, it is your obligation to give clients what they want.

Making sales
Now this is where the actual work begins. You need to create a demand for your work. The internet makes it possible to attract buyers from all around the world. The first step to using the internet for sales is to create your own website. This website should be user friendly, attractive and communicative. Display images of high quality and create photo galleries for viewers. Keeping this site updated is essential to business. Stock websites have diverse traffic and opens up a whole new market.

Networking is a great way to get word of your work around. This can be done through social networking sites, ads and even through word of mouth. The more awareness spreads about your work, greater the business opportunities.

Set realistic goals
Being a freelancer is not always an easy task. Building up clientele takes time and effort. It is important to set a goal and works towards it. Have a realistic attitude and if you have alternative freelance jobs like being a travel writer, tying up the two would be a great way to build up clientele. It is important to communicate effectively with your clients. Be clear about what you can and cannot do. Make a final agreement and ensure that both you and the client are on the same page regarding the agreement terms.


Money making guidelines for freelance photographers
Charge extra for quick work: The faster a client wants his work done, the higher you can charge. If you get your clients used to getting last minute results, they will turn it into a habit, even when things could have been done much earlier. The first time a client comes to you for a quick job it can be reasonably priced, but it should be made clear that from the next time, the sooner the work is required, higher the cost will be.

Communication no-bar: Use a mix of emails and phone calls to communicate with your clients. This combination can save a lot of time. Emails are a great way to keep records and answer simple questions, but phone calls are the best for brain storming sessions. It is not necessary for you to meet your clients face to face. With the internet you may have clients all over the world, and communication is easiest done via the telephone or email.

Increase and improve your skills: Brushing up on your photography skills is a great way to expand your creativity and attract more business. More skills lead to more business. If you are a blog writer or like travelling, combining these could add to your work portfolio by doing jobs as a photographer and travel writer for instance.

Common myths about freelance photography
Myth: It is simple and can be indulged in during your free time.
Myth exposed: Freelance photography like any other job has deadlines. This means that no matter what your other commitments are, results need to be delivered on time. Of course there are some jobs that are more flexible than others, but all jobs demand a certain degree of responsibility. And this is a common trend seen across people who work at freelance jobs such as a blog writer or travel writer.

Myth: You are getting paid for your passion or hobby.
Myth exposed: When a client is paying for your services, it is your job to make sure your product satisfies him. How much ever you may enjoy photography, it needs to be done according to the clients requirements, whether you like the specifications or not. This freedom of creativity to a great extent depends on the project and your relationship with the client.

Myth: Hired photographers have unrestricted access to better equipment
Myth exposed: Working photographers have only required equipment. They understand the costs of buying equipment all the time. If they have any special requirements, working photographers usually borrow the equipment. It is common to see amateur photographers with hi-tech equipment because they often have a full time job and indulge in photography as a hobby, while working photographers work hard at their jobs.

Marketing Success with Social Media

Social Media. It may sound like a buzz word to many people but it really is an effective form of communication that businesses need to get behind. The influence of social media cannot be underestimated, as the rapid increase in smartphones and tablets gives us near instantaneous access to information and news.

The very concept of social media is permanently ingrained into us when you realize:

There are almost 6 billion mobile phone users on the planet. That’s almost 90% of the entire world’s population with the potential for mass communication.

♦ 1 in every 9 people utilise Facebook in some way.
♦ 700 billion minutes every month spent on Facebook worldwide
♦ 30 billion pieces of content shared on Facebook each month
♦ 190 million messages (tweets) over Twitter daily
♦ YouTube has 92 billion page views every month with 2.9 billion hours spent on the site per month.

As you can see, Social Media in a resource that can really benefit. The way forward it seems is to create amazing content and engage with people. Not potential customers, but regular people. This form of engagement should make these people advertise your business for you. This is the crux of the matter. The people who see your business should be willing themselves to tell other people about your service.

A great example of this is Appliances Online (AOL). They are a UK-based online white goods retailers who have embraced social media wholeheartedly. By actively engaging with people without a sales pitch and trying to get them to buy anything, AOL is being seen as a trustworthy company that people are telling other people about.

Social Bakers, an analytic site, rated AOL as #1 in their August Top 10 of highest engaging brands in the UK, in no small part to the efforts in building a relationship and a community with Facebook , Google+ and Twitter users. Over the last 12 months, AOL’s Facebook page has gained over 310 thousand likes, with over 8,000 followers on Twitter.

In fact, so confident are they that brand trust is a priority, that one strategy they also employ is a Facebook widget at the top of their site pages. This allows visitors to see which of their contacts recommend or like AOL, further enhancing the trust aspect.

Other great content includes the ongoing addition of high quality video reviews and features. AOL has a dedicated studio with highly modern camera recording and digital editing equipment, allowing visitors to AOL a real in-depth view into their products. Also, AOL is one of the few companies to add these videos to You Tube, allowing people to view them without ever even coming onto the site itself.

Through adopting a ‘don’t sell, will sell’ attitude to social media, small business’ such as AOL can really gain brand recognition that will prove highly profitable over the next few exiting years of mass communication.

MUST HAVE Photo Business Marketing Resource

2 Simple Ways To Promote Your Photography With Facebook & Twitter. I laughed when I saw that because I first met Rodney on twitter, and we still do most of our communicating on Facebook. Rodney is a master of social media promotion!

“Does Your Website Chase Away Prospects? & 3 Quick Ways to Fix It.” I was interested in what he had to say on this topic because as many of you know I am an SEO/SEM consultant. This is one of the first things I look at when I start working with a new client. Rodney is right on!

3 Ways To Keep You Clients Coming Back. In the marketing world, we are constantly reminded that it costs way way way more to get a new client than to get an existing client to make another purchase. Many photographers (actually this applies to all businesses) forget about this and lose out BIG TIME.

Attract New Clients With Video Contests. I have to confess that this was one of the first chapters I read, and I’m sure you can guess why!

The thing that really makes this book VALUABLE and Unique is the “Get Into Action” check list found at the end of each chapter. Rodney gives you a step-by-step check list of the actions you need to implement in order to make the day’s focus a reality. He’s figured out what the action steps are … you just need to DO them.

The bottom line... If you want to grow your business you need this book. It is a great read filled with honest, practical, down-to-earth advice. Rodney Washington is the real thing. You will get 1000% more than you paid for and you’d be nuts to pass on this. Check it out here.

Photography Business – Build Your Own Photography Business Through Referrals

Photography Business – Build Your Own Photography Business Through Referrals
by Guest Blogger: Rodney Washington


Have you pondered the idea of making some real money from your photography? In this article I will show you one of the simplest and low-cost ways you can learn-to-earn from your passion for photography. Call it your first step to Building a Successful Photography Business 101

Start with the people who already know, like and trust you and then ask them for referrals. For example, shoot your nephews birthday party, portraits of your neighbor’s kids or pets, even your favorite neighborhood restaurant dishes if food photography is your passion. Gently hit up everyone you know, siblings, parents, coworkers and friends and when you exhaust those resources (but don’t be a pest) ask them for referrals and remember everyone is a potential source.

You could build your business solely on referrals and word-of-mouth if you exercise this approach properly. Don’t ever forget that photography is a people business and people like to work with others that they enjoy being around period, so it never hurts to ask. If you want to sweeten the pot offer even further offer a referral fee. Money can be a tremendous motivator! If funds are tight or you don’t wish to offer cash in exchange for referrals you could offer more of your services, read the next section for more suggestions.

Quick Tip: People don’t like to be sold too, but they love to buy from people they know, like and trust. Once you start receiving new business this way and if you keep your customers happy all you need to do is rinse and repeat. In other words ask your referrals for referrals.

Want another bonus tip? To keep the referrals coming offer your current customers an ethical bribe. For example you could offer extra prints if they refer you to two or three new sources of contacts. Give them a gift certificate for a free session if they refer you to five or more. In other words the more referrals they provide the more you sweeten the pot. See how this works? If those referrals generate paying customers you could even go so far as to offer a gift card to their favorite restaurant or day spa.

Want one more tip? Find people with a good Rolodex. “How do I find someone with a good Rolodex?” you may be asking. Think about it; are you or someone you know in direct contact with potential paying customers you want to attract? I’ll give you some examples: if you shoot portraits of women, hairdressers or makeup artists may a great source of contacts for you.

If you photograph dogs or cats perhaps a doggie day care, pet spa or vet’s office could refer you. If you photograph individuals who have recently experienced a major change in their physical appearance i.e. weight loss, facelift or other cosmetic alteration consider contacting plastic surgeons, personal trainers or health and sports clubs.

Do you desire to break into the lucrative wedding market? Don’t go out directly soliciting brides-to-be especially if you don’t have a book or a lot of experience. No, connect with the people who serve them.

Target florists, caterers, printers, bridal gown vendors, bands and musicians. If you have to as a gesture of good will offer to shoot their goods for free in the beginning to build your reputation.
Most importantly do good work, prove yourself and give them something that they need and they in turn can give you something you need. In this case paying customers. The possibilities are endless.

Just remember: Take care of those who take care of you and you should have no problem bringing in new business.

I’ll leave you with this, today more than ever in the competitive business of photography those who succeed are the ones who think outside-the-box. Be willing to go that extra mile to reach those who need what you love to do and you greatly increase your opportunities for success.

The Bottom Line? Get the tools you need to either get your photography business off the ground -or- increase your existing business by opening new markets today! If you want in-depth pointers, ideas, information on running a successful photography business, explore my site. I’d like to invite you to sign up to receive my audio course:Secrets to Running A Successful Photography Business: 5 Things That They Didn’t Teach You In School to claim your copy of this valuable course:
http://photo-marketing-mentor.com/free

How to Make Your Photography Business A Real Success

Our Guest Expert today is Lauren Britz, a native South African who ended up in Sunny South Florida after traveling the world. Having graduated as a Professional Photographer she’s aimed to make a name for herself in all realms of photography. Her company ShutterFlies Photography specializes in weddings, engagements and any thing else going on in your life.

Be sure to get this book if you plan on starting your own photo biz: Going Pro: How to Make the Leap from Aspiring to Professional Photographer

The Business of Photography
… by Lauren Britz

Here are the TOP 7 ways to make your Photography and Photography Business a Real Success.

1. Do what you love. There is no greater motivation than your photography passion to drive you to go the extra mile for your clients and for yourself. If you truly want to do photography for a living – then do it! It does take time to transition into doing photography full time but do not hesitate any longer – start now!

Put your photography identity together right away and put it out there. The longer it is out there the more people will notice you and one fine day you will get hired. From there the ball will keep rolling.

You will also notice that the minute you choose to do what you love and you find a way to make it a reality, you will become a workaholic. An incredible man once said, “If you do what you love, you won’t feel like you’ve done a days work in your life.” – Unre Visagie.

You may have heard or read about the very talented author, Stephen Covey. In his book, ‘Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’, the first habit he talks about is – Be Proactive. By being proactive you find your way from being dependent to being independent. If that corporate job is numbing your brain, now is a good time to start.

2. Be brave. You’ve probably already thought to yourself, “Yeah, if only it was that easy. I don’t have time. I don’t have money. There are a million photographers out there”.

Well, nothing is that easy; you have to make the time, and you don’t need much money. It takes some effort on your part to get the ball rolling but the good news is that once you’ve done your first few jobs it get easier to get keep the ball rolling. Like anything in life, getting started is always the hardest part. Here are some very affordable ways to get your marketing and your business up and running:

– Don’t quit your day job… yet!

– Find a photography name that suits you and that you love. Many photographers simply use their names. You can go to Business.gov to make sure the name is available.

– Find a friend or a small business to design your photography business identity for you, including an online portfolio, a logo, business cards, letterheads, business stamp, pamphlets… anything that you can use to get your name out there. One great Fort Lauderdale business that can help is 3DPedrique, a 3D and graphic designer who does a great job at a very affordable price.

– Network, network, network! Become an online social networking whiz. If you’re a little hesitant then hire yourself a social networker for cheap! With all the social networking online today you can go one of two ways – drown in the inevitable mass of information or target yourself nice and neatly into a group that needs, wants and is willing to pay for your photographic skills. Try the local Fort Lauderdale networker, Social Susan, a master of social networking, both online and offline at a great price.

Stephen Covey’s second habit is – Begin with the End in Mind: Principles of Personal Vision. This is based on the idea that to succeed things need to be created twice. The first creation being leadership, and the second one being management. Management means finding ways to do things right; leadership is making sure you’re doing the right things.

3. Be organized and get involved. Make order out of your chaos. Get an organizer of your choice, whether it is a diary or a Smartphone. Make it your best friend in the world and put everything in it. Let it work for you by reminding you what needs to be done instead of you having to worry about the things that need to be done. Make a habit of listing all your shoot dates, photography meetings, gallery outings, photography outings.

Create a physical or online filing system in alphabetical order and make a habit of filing all necessary documentation. Do yourself a HUGE favor and rid yourself of clutter. You will feel much lighter; increase your energy and productivity. Read through the LifeOrganizer for more tips.

4. Be Honest, forthright and competent. Covey’s third habit is – Put First Things First: Principles of Integrity & Execution.

Integrity is the value you have of yourself to determine what you find acceptable and not. You will often be dealing with clients, such as bridezillas, that will expect the impossible from you will drive you crazy. Decide where your integrity lies to create accurate expectations with your photography clients.

Be pleasantly forward with them as to what is and what is not possible when shooting, and remain competent with any photographic skill you’ve promised them.

Covey’s 7th habit is – Sharpen the Saw: Principles of Balanced Self-Renewal of body Continual Improvement. Photography incorporates many different aspects, not only technical, but physical, spiritual, mental and of course social.

Keep your skills razor sharp and forever growing by practicing and by continuously critiquing your own work or offer other photographers the opportunity to do it for you. Please do not be too hard on yourself.

5. Do not undersell yourself. First things first; find the photographic skill level that you are most comfortable with for now and let your pricelist reflect that accordingly. Do not start charging your clients $6000 if you’re only doing mid-size 6 hour weddings. Work your way up that ladder. The same is said for underselling yourself. Don’t offer to do an entire wedding for a mere $400 because it is a reflection of your work. Set the expectation for your clients and yourself. If you don’t believe you are worth it – they won’t either.

6. Use each other. Synergize. Join the club. Create a synergy with others. Covey’s fourth, fifth and sixth habits fall nicely into this category.

Habit 4 – Think Win/Win – Principles on Interpersonal Leadership teaches that agreements between people are mutually beneficial. See other photographers around you as resources, not as competition or enemies. There may be a time when they need you and you need them. Let’s say if they accidentally booked two weddings on the same day (it happens a lot) and you come to mind, they could pass the business off to you or vice versa.

Habit 5 – Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood is probably the most important one; communication is THE most important skill in life and business. If you want to get and keep people coming back to you for photography services or to be referred by past clients you MUST learn to interact effectively with them. As this habit states, “if you are to influence me, you first need to understand me.”

Become and empathetic listener and inspire openness and trusts with potential and past photography clients.

Habit 6: Synergize: Principles of Creative Cooperation is vitally important, and probably the most difficult for most photographers. In order to find synergy with other photographers and clients you have to have good intentions and be genuine. If you let other photographers influence you will “gain new insights and facilitate the generation of new options.”

Find ways and willing accomplices to become part of a mutually beneficial work relationship. There are way too many photographers out there that refuse to share and in the end they are the ones that will be left behind while everyone else that is joined takes over. The South Florida Camera Club based in Fort Lauderdale is a wonderful club that has been going for years and welcomes anyone with an interest in photography and they allow all types of business networking.

7. Believe in yourself. If there is one promise, it is that you WILL encounter photographers that are cold, stern, unethical and miserable. When this does happen, continue on your path and do not let them undermine your abilities in yourself and affect your business.

I know it sounds all “airy fairy” to those who are not perceptive to the unseen ways of the universe. But watch. You have nothing to lose. Try it.

You love what you do so do it with passion. There will be many people giving you the eye when you tell them you want to start your own photography business. Many will pass it off to general conversation. Perhaps you get the impression that people don’t think you’ll succeed. None of this matters… Who cares? The only thing you should care about is that you’re doing what you love, and you know you’re good at it.

This article is by Lauren Britz of ShutterFliesPhotography

Best Time To Tweet


The best time to tweet: Our 4.8 million-tweet research study

Our key learnings
Wow, we learned so much looking at the awesome stats from those who use Buffer! Here were some of the takeaways we came up with. I’d love to hear what catches your eye, too!
♦Based on all of the tweet data we have collected, the early morning hours appear to be the time in which tweets receive the most clicks, on average.
♦Evenings and late at night are the times when your tweets receive the most favorites and retweets, on average.
♦In some cases, times with the highest amount of average engagement are almost inversely related to the most popular times to tweet.
♦The most popular time to tweet and the best times to tweet for engagement differ across time zones, so it’s still important to experiment and find the times when your audience is most engaged.
What you might do with this data

In some of the results below, you’ll see specific times that we found to be the most popular times to tweet or the best times to tweet for clicks, for example.

What we love to do with specific takeaways like this is use them as the starting points for new experiments.

Over time we’ve come to learn that research studies like these are great for inspiration, not prescription. I’d pause slightly in suggesting that you change your whole Buffer schedule to align with these new Twitter times—unless your data and analysis says so!

What I’d love to suggest is that these new times perhaps give you ideas about what to test out next with your social media sharing, perhaps some counterintuitive suggestions about what to try—tweeting at non-peak times, tweeting at 2:00 a.m. for clicks, for instance.

And we’d love to hear back on how any of these tests turn out for you!


The most popular time to tweet:
Noon to 1:00 p.m.
We’ve taken the data from all tweets sent through Buffer to find the most popular times for posting to Twitter. Looking at all tweets sent across all major time zones, here is an overview of the most popular times to tweet.
♦Noon to 1:00 p.m. local time, on average for each time zone, is the most popular time to tweet
♦The highest volume of tweets occurs between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., peaking between noon and 1:00 p.m.
♦The fewest tweets are sent between 3:00 and 4:00 a.m.
What you might do with this data

The most popular time to tweet is also the time when there is the highest volume of tweets, perhaps making it a bit more difficult for your tweet to stand out in someone’s timeline.

What might be great to try here is tweeting at non-peak hours, the times in the early morning and late evening.

Another thought is that the most popular times to tweet could very well correlate to the times when most people are on Twitter. Perhaps it’s worth testing also to see if tweeting during a popular time is worthwhile simply for the amount of people who are online.

(One great stat to look at with this is tweet impressions, which you can find in Twitter’s free analytics.)

**

Here’s the chart for the most popular times worldwide, taken from an average of 10 major time zones (the times represent local time).



Here is the graph for the most popular times to tweet in each of the four major U.S. time zones.



(We normalized the data to account for daylight’s savings in the U.S. as well.)

Here are the charts for the major time zones in Europe and Africa.



(Note: The London (GMT) time zone used to be the default time zone for new Buffer users, so our data for GMT is not as clean as we would like it to be. We’ve omitted any takeaways for GMT from the research results here.)

Here are the charts for the major time zones in Asia and Australia.



It’s interesting to see how the most popular time to tweet varies across the time zones. We’ve shared Buffer’s 10 most popular time zones in the charts above. Here’s a list of each most popular hour for the 10 major time zones.
♦Los Angeles, San Francisco, etc. (Pacific Time): 9:00 a.m.
♦Denver (Mountain Time): noon
♦Chicago (Central Time): noon
♦New York, Boston, Atlanta, Miami, etc. (Eastern Time): noon
♦Madrid, Rome, Paris, etc. (Central European): 4:00 p.m.
♦Cape Town, Cairo, Helsinki, etc. (Eastern European): 8:00 p.m.
♦Sydney (Australian Eastern): 10:00 p.m.
♦Hong Kong (Hong Kong Time): 8:00 a.m.
♦Tokyo (Japan Time): noon
♦Shanghai, Taipei, etc. (China Time): 9:00 p.m.

For any clarification on this or the other research throughout this article, feel free to leave a comment and we’ll get right back to you.

Takeaways & thoughts:
♦The most popular time to post could be due to a number of factors: This is when most people have access to Twitter (perhaps at a work computer), this is when online audiences are most likely to be connected (see Burrito Principle), etc.
♦Should you post during the most popular times? That’s one possibility. Also, you may find success posting at non-peak times, when the volume of tweets is lower.
♦If you have a large international audience on Twitter, you may wish to locate the particular part of the world where they’re from, and adjust your schedule accordingly. You can find the times when your audience may be online with tools like Followerwonk and Crowdfire.
The best times to tweet to get more clicks
We were excited to dig into the specific metrics for each of these tweets, too, in hopes of coming up with some recommendations and best practices to test out for your Twitter strategy.

First up, the best time to tweet for clicks.
Looking at the data, we found the following trends for maximizing your chance to get more clicks:
♦Tweets sent between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m. earn the most clicks on average
♦The highest number of clicks per tweet occurs between 2:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m., peaking between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m.
♦The fewest clicks per tweet happen in the morning (when tweet volume is particularly high), between 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.

What you might do with this data
We were fascinated to see that the best time to earn the most clicks on average was the middle of the night. It’s a quite counterintuitive results!

One interpretation here is that with this being the average, there is the possibility that outliers can have a large impact on the data—for instance an tweet that gets 4,000 clicks at 2:00 a.m. would raise the average significantly.

So what I might take away from this is that tweeting at 2:00 a.m. would likely not mean that every 2:00 a.m. tweet will see really high click numbers but thatevery once in awhile a 2:00 a.m. tweet could really take off.

** Scroll to the bottom of the post for an updated explanation of this data (as well as some alternate views). We’re very grateful for all the helpful comments on this! **

The data in the below chart is the worldwide average, calculated for the local time in each time zone. So the peak at the 2:00 a.m. hour would hold true as the overall top time no matter which time zone you’re in—2:00 a.m. in Los Angeles, New York, Cape Town, Hong Kong, etc.



For the specifics on each of the best time to tweet for clicks in each of the major time zones in Buffer, here’s a breakdown.
♦Los Angeles, San Francisco, etc. (Pacific Time): 2:00 a.m.
♦Denver (Mountain Time): 7:00 p.m.
♦Chicago (Central Time): 2:00 a.m.
♦New York, Boston, Atlanta, Miami, etc. (Eastern Time): 11:00 p.m.
♦Madrid, Rome, Paris, Berlin, etc. (Central European): 2:00 a.m.
♦Cape Town, Cairo, Istanbul, etc. (Eastern European): 8:00 p.m.
♦Sydney (Australian Eastern): 2:00 a.m.
♦Hong Kong (Hong Kong Time): 5:00 a.m.
♦Shanghai, Taipei, etc. (China Time): noon
♦Tokyo (Japan Time): 8:00 a.m.



Takeaways & thoughts:
♦Clicks was far and away the largest engagement metric that we tracked in this study (compared to retweets, replies, and favorites).
♦Some of the recommended best times for individual time zones show thatnon-peak hours are the top time to tweet for clicks. This data may reflect some particularly high-achieving posts—some outliers—that bring up the average when the volume of tweets is lowest. Still, it’d be a great one to test for your profile to see what results you get.
♦One neat thing to keep in mind is that a non-peak hour in, say, Los Angeles may correspond to a peak hour in London or Paris. The worldwide audience is definitely one to consider when finding the best time to tweet.
♦The 2:00 a.m. recommendation in the worldwide chart is made by looking at the average of all the data and hence may include the effect of certain outlier accounts. One way I like to look at this is that the potential exists for great leaps in engagement for your tweet by posting at 2:00 a.m., however it may be unlikely to expect that posting at 2:00 a.m. would bring consistently higher click rates on each and every individual tweet.

For more context on this, see our note from Julian, Buffer’s data scientist, below.

The best times for overall engagement with your tweet
We define engagement as clicks plus retweets, favorites, and replies. When looking at all these interactions together, we found the following trends formaximizing your chance to get the most engagement on your tweets:
♦Tweets sent between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m. earn the most total engagement on average
♦The highest amount of engagement per tweet occurs between 11:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m., peaking between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m.
♦The smallest amount of engagement happens during traditional work hours, between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.



Takeaways & thoughts:
♦The best times to tweet for engagement are quite the inverse of the most popular times to tweet. (The late-night infomercial effect—tweet when fewer people are tweeting—seems to be the case here.)

The best times for retweets and favorites on your tweets
Adding together two of the most common engagement metrics, we found some interesting trends for maximizing the retweets and favorites on your tweets, especially for those with a U.S. audience.

Looking at 1.1 million tweets from U.S. Buffer users from January through March 2015, here were some of the notable takeaways we found:
♦Tweets sent at the 9:00 p.m. hour in the U.S. earn the most retweets and favorites on average
♦The highest number of retweets and favorites occurs between 8:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m., peaking between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m.
♦The lowest retweet-favorite engagement happens at 3:00 a.m.

(Interesting to note, the takeaways from this data compared to the worldwide engagement data differ slightly for a couple reasons: 1) clicks represent a huge portion of overall engagement, and 2) the worldwide vs. US datasets vary.)



We’d love to make it easy for you to share these results with your audience, your friends, your clients—anyone you think might benefit from them.

>> Download every chart from this post (.zip) <<

The methodology for our research

We studied all tweets ever sent through Buffer—4.8 million tweets since October 2010!

Based on this sample set, we looked at the number of clicks per tweet, favorites per tweet, retweets per tweet, and replies per tweet, in accordance with the time of day that the tweet was posted to Twitter.

Further, we segmented the results according to time zones, based on the assumption that the learnings might be more actionable if they could be specific to exactly where you live and work.

We had an interesting opportunity to consider whether median or average would be the better metric to use for our insights. It turns out that so many tweets in the dataset receive minimal engagement that the median was often zero. For this reason, we chose to display the average.

Thanks for all your great comments on this data. We’re so grateful for your help in improving these results. See below for an update from our data scientist Julian.
Update: Context & clarifications on the Twitter timing data

Some of the findings in this study are quite counter-intuitive. In particular, our finding of 2:00 a.m. as the best time to tweet for clicks really stands out.

I would love to take this opportunity to try to explain why.

The early morning hours were when tweets received the most clicks, on average, in several of the time zones we analyzed. There are several factors apart from the hour of day that may affect the amount of clicks that a tweet receives, many of which we’ve been grateful to learn from you in the comments and via social and email.
♦The number of followers a Twitter account has can have a very large influence on the number of clicks, retweets, or favorites a tweet receives.
♦The type of content, day of week, and messaging can also influence engagement.

When analyzing our tweet data, I did not control for these extraneous factors, and I’m sorry for the confusion this has caused. Analyzing the data as-is means that, when you see a result of 2:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. as the hour in which tweets receive the most clicks, this is an average amount of clicks for all of the tweets in that particular timezone.

This is an important consideration for a couple reasons:
♦It means that large accounts with many followers have an unusually large influence on the average amount of clicks per tweet.
♦Especially in the early morning hours, these large accounts have a disproportionate effect on the average amount of clicks because of both the high follower count and the relatively low tweet volume from many of the other Twitter accounts.

For example, the graph below shows the total number of tweets posted from accounts in each follower tier in the Eastern European Timezone (EET).



The largest accounts, those in tier T06 with over 5,000 followers, tweet far more often than all of the other accounts and tweet mostly late at night, when other accounts don’t tweet as much. This raises a red flag in my mind. What I could do here is segment the data, so that data from the large accounts doesn’t confound the findings from the rest of the accounts, which may represent a more typical Twitter user. (I did this below, if you’d like to take a look!)

Another great thought from those of you who read the post is that we could look at the data with another convenient statistic, the median (the middle value in a series of values), to compare the amount of engagement received by tweets sent out at different hours of the day.

The main reasons I chose to stick with the average is that so many tweets in our dataset received no clicks, retweets, or favorites. As a result, most of the medians for the different hours of day turned out to be 0!

More complicated transformations of the data could have also been employed, but the use of such methods make the findings a bit more difficult to interpret, and we’re very keen to provide actionable insight to all of our readers!

I totally understand that, while including all of the accounts gives a full view of all of our Twitter data, it means that some of the data might be skewed by these large accounts tweeting in unusual hours. I definitely don’t want skewed data, and I want to be fully transparent about this and what we’re doing to correct this.

The best time to tweet for clicks: An alternate way of looking at the data

To control for the effect of the large accounts on average engagement, I looked at the total number of tweets posted from accounts in seven separate follower tiers as well as the average likes received from those tweets.

In some cases an outlier in the data was also rather obvious. For instance, seeing tweets from accounts with fewer than 100 followers receive thousands of clicks on average raises a red flag in my mind that it could be an outlier. In other cases, I found that large accounts tweeted much more than other accounts during unusual hours and received an unnatural spike in average clicks.

I found that it might be useful to remove these segments from the data.

An example of a case such as this can be seen in the graph below.



After filtering out accounts with a disproportionate amount of weight that were skewing the data, here is what we found. I’d love to hear your feedback and would be happy to respond to any questions in the comments! 

Best Time to Tweet for Clicks, Worldwide: 6:00 to 7:00 a.m.
(excluding outliers with abnormally volatile average click counts)
♦Los Angeles, San Francisco, etc. (Pacific Time): 10:00 p.m.
♦Denver (Mountain Time): 7:00 p.m.
♦Chicago (Central Time): 2:00 a.m.
♦New York, Boston, Atlanta, Miami, etc. (Eastern Time): 2:00 p.m.
♦Madrid, Rome, Paris, Berlin, etc. (Central European): 5:00 p.m.
♦Cape Town, Cairo, Istanbul, etc. (Eastern European): 5:00 a.m.
♦Sydney (Australian Eastern): 1:00 p.m.
♦Hong Kong (Hong Kong Time): 5:00 a.m.
♦Shanghai, Taipei, etc. (China Time): 7:00 a.m.
♦Tokyo (Japan Time): 8:00 a.m.


Best Times to Publish Content for Social Media Engagement

At AddThis, we’re constantly analyzing data from the 1.9B unique users we see per month across our network of over 15MM websites to learn how people are engaging with content. Last December, we published the best times to post on social media during the winter holidays. That post, as well as a similar one we did earlier that year, proved so popular that we’re doing it again.
best-times-publish-main-image

Knowing when your users are active on social networks is useful, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. We analyzed data in both the United States (US) and in the United Kingdom (UK) to search for peak social engagement times – when users were most likely to click and share content – on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest. These findings are meant to help website owners get an idea of the best times to publish new content to maximize engagement on social media.

Social Media Engagement in the United States
In the US, most social networks see a spike in shares during the morning hours. Shares in this case don’t refer to shares on Facebook or retweets on Twitter – instead, these shares refer to content being shared to a specific social network from its original digital source through sharing tools (e.g. share to Facebook, share to Twitter). This trend is especially true for Twitter and LinkedIn, which are sites that tend to attract early birds. Shares to Facebook get started a bit later in the day, and shares to Pinterest happen mostly at night.

With shares occurring earlier in the day, clicks tend to happen a little later across all social networks, mostly in the late afternoon and into the evening. Twitter and LinkedIn get the most clicks in the afternoon, while Facebook and Pinterest drive traffic after 8:00pm.

Peak Times of Day for Shares and Clicks by Social Network
Use this information to get more of your content shared across social media and help drive clicks back to your website:

*All times listed above are in Eastern Standard Time (EST)

Peak Times of Week to Post for Maximum Social Engagement
While each social network has peak times of day for shares and clicks, they also have certain days of the week during which engagement spikes. When you put all that data together, you get specific timeframes for which you should aim to post content for maximum shares and clicks.

*All times listed above are in Eastern Standard Time (EST)

Users rest on the weekend, and so can you. Since demand for content isn’t as high on Saturdays and Sundays, save your best content to be published during the 9-5 workday between Monday and Thursday. Sharing and clicking activity tends to die down on Saturday and Sunday across all platforms…except on Pinterest. In fact, some of the highest click activity on content shared to Pinterest occurs on Sunday night from 9:00-10:00! Note that users aren’t as willing to share content on Sundays, but there is definitely a demand to see new pins.

Social Media Engagement in the United Kingdom
Unlike in the US, where clicking tends to happen much later than sharing, in the UK, sharing and clicking tend to happen within the same time period. This could be due to the fact that “Britons are slightly less digitally obsessed” or that social networks are blocked at many U.K. companies, resulting in less time spent on social networks overall, and less time spent during work hours. Much of the social activity in the UK occurs between 8:00-10:00pm GMT.

Peak Times of Day for Shares and Clicks by Social Network
The UK data is similar to the US when it comes to Twitter and LinkedIn (shares to these networks occur in the morning), as well as Pinterest (shares happen at night). The wild card here is Facebook. While users in the US tend to share to Facebook in the late morning and early afternoon, in the UK, that activity happens at night, from 8:00-10:00pm.

*All times listed above are in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)

Peak Times of Week to Post for Maximum Social Engagement
Like social media users in the US, those in the UK are spending less time engaging with social media during the weekends. However, the exception is Sunday nights for Pinterest users, when sharing content tends to spike on this platform.

*All times listed above are in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)

Use this data as a starting point to get to know your audience’s habits. You may find that – based on their gender, life stage or interests – they’re on a different schedule. With AddThis Social Sharing Tools, you can make it easy for visitors to share your content, as well as get in-depth analytics about how and when they’re engaging with your brand across different social networks. Get started!

Twitter Most Popular Hash Tags

Simply put, a hashtag is an easy way for people to categorize, find and join conversations on a particular topic.

The hashtag is used to highlight keywords or topics within a Tweet, and can be placed anywhere within a post.

Thanks to the member-driven online information site Twitter, the lowly "pound" or "number" symbol "#" has been elevated to a new role. The hash mark, or pound symbol, (#) is now known by social media users as a "hashtag" or "hash tag". Posts that have the same keywords prefixed with the # symbol are grouped together in user searches, bringing a level of order to the frenzied chaotic world of Twitter.

Hashtags.org is known as the defacto standard / resource for curating the world's list of hashtag definitions. Use our invaluable Hashtag Dictionary to search, understand, or define your tags of interest!



POPULAR HASH TAGS:
TV/Entertainment: #dwts, #AmericanNinjaWarrior, #idol, #WorldCup
General: #news, #love, #photography, #fashion, #health, #fail, #ff, #wcw
Business: #jobs, #business, #sales, #economy, #marketing, #socialmedia, #startup
Tech: #android, #ios, #androidgames,#iphone, #iphonegames, #ipad, #ipadgames, #app
Education: #edtech, #education, #lrnchat, #teachers
Environment: #climate, #solar, #globalwarming, #drought
Social Change: #socialgood, #cause, #volunteer, #4change
Astrology: #gemini, #capricorn, #libra, #aries, #scorpio, #virgo, #taurus, #cancer, #pisces, #leo, #sagittarius,#aquarius

Why Does My Android Battery Die So Fast? Battery Life Savers

Why Does My Android Battery Die So Fast? The Best Phone / Tablet / iPhone/ Android Battery Life Savers!

Samsung, HTC, LG, Motorola, Google, or any other Android phone or tablet, issues with Android battery life almost always be resolved by addressing the one thing all these devices have in common: The Android Operating System. I’m going to explain the real reasons your Samsung, HTC, LG, Motorola, or Google phone or tablet runs out of battery so fast and show you exactly what to do to make your Android-based phone or tablet’s battery last a whole lot longer.
Before We Begin: Free Apps That Are Life-Savers

We’re going to be changing some settings on your device and the Settings menu on every device is a little bit different. If you’re having trouble finding any of the settings I mention below (or if you just want to make your life easier), I highly recommend that you head to the Google Play store and download these great free apps.

Don’t worry, I’m not getting any kickbacks for recommending these apps to you. I’ve used a bunch of battery life saving apps and these are the ones that I use on my own Android phone. If you’d rather skip the downloads and head right to the first Android battery life-saving tip, you can do that too!
Quick Settings

Smart Quick Settings is a free app that allows you to change your device’s settings without delving through the complicated Settings menu. I’m going to keep things simple by telling you how to change your device’s settings using the Smart Quick Settings app. If you want to use the Settings menu on your device, feel free – all of these settings can be changed without downloading Smart Quick Settings, if you’d prefer not to.
Super Task-Killer Free

Super Task Killer Free is a great app that gives you a quick, simple way to close out all of your apps at once. We’ll cover exactly why you’ll want to use it later on. For now, rest assured, it’s a huge time-saver, and well worth the download.

Now that you’ve opened up Smart Quick Settings, let’s walk through the settings that could be draining your battery without your knowledge. We’ll get to the more secret tips on the next couple of pages. If you’d like to skip ahead, feel free – but these are important!

♦ Mobile Data – Turn Off 4G
If you have a smartphone, you’ll see Mobile Data as an option in Smart Quick Settings. If you don’t see it, that’s fine – just skip to the next section.
Do any of these situations apply to you?
Your carrier doesn’t have 4G coverage in your area
You do a lot of traveling between 3G and 4G coverage areas
You simply don’t need to use 4G (because you don’t stream video on the go)

If you answered yes to any of these questions, turn off 4G on your device. When you have 4G on and you’re not in an area with 4G coverage, your phone is always asking, “Is there 4G coverage here? How about here? What about now?”, and this constant searching uses a lot of battery life.

♦ Turn Off Mobile Data Entirely (When You Can)
If you’re really struggling with battery life and you travel within areas with spotty coverage, try disabling Mobile Data entirely. You’ll still be able to receive texts and make phone calls, but you’ll save a lot of battery.

A friend of mine has a camp in the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York, and whenever I travel there I make sure to turn off Mobile Data. A good rule of thumb: The worse the coverage, the faster your battery drains. This happens because your phone’s antenna has to work that much harder to try to find and maintain a signal.


♦ Don’t Use The Facebook App (You Can Use The Mobile Website Instead of Facebook Apk)
Like I said before, not all apps are created equal, and in my book, you won’t find any better examples of this than the Facebook and Facebook Messenger apps. It’s strong language, but it’s true: The Facebook app for Android is horrible. The only way to stop the Facebook app from constantly checking for notifications and eating up battery life is to log out of the app. Even closing it out using the methods above doesn’t solve the problem – it restarts itself almost instantaneously.

There’s only one solution to this problem: Uninstall the Facebook app and use m.facebook.com.
Why, you ask? One app can’t be that bad, right? Wrong!

When I had the Facebook app on my phone, I was lucky if I got 8-10 hours on a full charge, even after implementing all of the other suggestions I’ve shared with you on how to improve your battery life. Now, under exactly the same conditions but without the Facebook app, I average 12-16 hours of battery life. Yep: Applying this one simple fix has given me at least 50% more battery life.

I’ve only given one example here, but trust your gut – if you’ve recently installed an app that is draining your battery too quickly, locking up your phone or tablet for long periods of time, or causing your device to reboot – you’ve probably stumbled across a poorly-coded app. I’d love to hear about your own discoveries in the comments section below.

♦ Keep Your Brightness At A Comfortable Level (Make It Lower at your suitable Level)
Let’s head back to the Smart Quick Settings app and take a closer look at the Brightness setting on your device. Truth is, the displays built into our devices these days are amazing, and they can get really, really bright. The brighter the display, however, the faster your battery will drain.

Setting your device’s Brightness slider right around the middle will be absolutely fine in most circumstances and can cut down on eye strain in low light environments. I have my phone set on Auto-Brightness, a feature that automatically adjusts the brightness of the display to the level of ambient light surrounding you. This uses the ambient light sensor in your phone, which in itself can drain the battery by always asking, “How bright is it now? How about now?”, but I’ve found that the tiny amount of battery this sensor actually uses saves most people a far greater amount of battery life than the massive drain caused by leaving their device set to maximum brightness all the time.
♦ GPS (GPS Constantly Using Internet)
If you rarely use your phone for GPS, you probably don’t need your phone to constantly ping satellites for a service that you’re not using anyway. Head to Settings -> Location Services and turn GPS off.

♦ Bluetooth (Keep Bluetooth Off when Not Using It)
Do You Even Have Any Bluetooth Devices? This one’s simple: If you don’t use any Bluetooth devices, turn Bluetooth off to save battery life.

♦ Wi-Fi (If You Don’t Use It)
Do you use Wi-Fi at home or in the office? If you do, it’s probably best to leave Wi-Fi on, just to keep things simple. If you don’t, go ahead and turn Wi-Fi off to save some extra battery life.

♦ Close Out Your Apps – The Real Way
One thing’s for sure: Not all apps are created equal. In a perfect world, whenever you hit Home, your apps have a few seconds to enter a dormant mode in which they innocently sleep in memory until you open them again. Some apps have special access to the internet, are allowed to send notifications, or keep sound playing in the background, and this is absolutely OK unless an app stops playing nicely and begins to abuse its special privileges.

♦ All your apps are like kids in a classroom.
The Android operating system is the teacher, and everything goes smoothly until one kid starts to misbehave. It’s harder to control a classroom of 30 than a classroom of 10, and the more kids you have in a class, the more likely one is going to misbehave. When it comes to your phone or tablet, you’re responsible for the teacher (the Android operating system), and I’m going to show you how to send those misbehaving kids (apps) out of your classroom to the principal’s office (by closing out your apps).

I’m going to show you two ways to close out your apps, but before I do, I’d like to warn you about a pitfall most people don’t know about: When you swipe apps out of the recent apps menu, this doesn’t close out your apps at all, so it doesn’t solve any problems – it just removes them from that list of recent apps.

♦ The Easy Way To Close Out Your Apps
There’s a great app that gives you a quick, simple way to close out all of your apps at once, and it’s one that I recommended at the beginning of this article. If you haven’t already, click here to download Super Task Killer Free from the Google Play Store.

After you’ve downloaded the app, open it up, select the apps that you’d like to close (by default they’re all selected), and tap “Kill selected apps.” That’s it. This doesn’t delete your apps – it just clears them from the application memory. The next time you open an app, it gets a fresh start, and (hopefully) it will behave the next time you use it. If you continue to have a problem with a specific app, it might be time to look for an alternative in the Google Play store, or read on…

Fortunately, there’s a much simpler way to do this – just use Super Task Killer Free, the program that you installed in the beginning of this tutorial.
The “Official” Way To Close Out Your Apps

If you read your Android phone’s manual, you’ll find the officially way to close out your apps is built into Settings on your device. It’s a long, drawn-out process – especially if you’re closing more than one app. I did want to cover this method, however, because it’s the one way to do it that’s built into every device. Head to Settings -> Apps, select the app that you want to close, and tap Force stop. When it warns you about the possibility of causing the app to misbehave, tap OK anyway, because in most cases, closing out your apps actually fixes issues, and it definitely doesn’t make anything worse. Repeat this process for as many apps as you’d like to close.
♦ Wrapping It Up
There’s no way to make your battery last forever, but I guarantee that if you make even some of these changes I’ve suggested, you will notice a significant improvement in battery life on your Android tablet or phone.

Have questions, comments, or tips of your own? Leave a comment below and I’ll get back to you! Thanks to John “Wiggums” Millere to write this article to help people worldwide. 

How to Repair a Phone Battery


Cell phones are increasingly important for both personal and business use. These phones run off batteries, so it is both frustrating and inconvenient when a phone battery holds a charge for only a short time, or gets wet, which could spell ruin. Although lithium batteries produce more energy and are lighter and smaller than in the past, they are unpredictable and therefore demand careful use. Manufacturers build these batteries with surge breakers so consumers cannot overcharge or over-discharge them. However, if the lithium battery is not holding a charge for long, there are ways to repair it and increase the battery life, even though these batteries do not contain serviceable parts. There are also ways to fix a wet battery.

How to Repair a Wet Battery
Portable phones go many places and face dangers that less portable devices may not. Water damage to a phone and the battery in that phone often means disaster. Acting quickly if a battery gets wet minimizes the damage and prevents a completely ruined product. To prevent further damage, immediately remove the battery from the phone using a small set of pliers or your fingers. Water damages the circuit board, a key part to battery function, and getting the battery out of the wet location lessens the likelihood of circuit board damage. Shake the battery and the phone and then blot with paper towels to remove excess water from the surface. Use cotton swabs on the connectors and other hard-to-reach places. Submerge the battery in rice overnight to absorb all remaining water out of the battery.

How to Fix a Battery That Does Not Hold a Charge
A battery that does not hold a charge for long is at best a minor inconvenience; at worst, it can cause missed important phone calls or lack of access to a calendar, causing the user to miss appointments. Turning off any idle applications is a first step in extending the life of any battery. Removing unused applications also helps. Cell phone carriers sometimes load the phone with applications prior to the sale; however, users sometimes have the ability to delete these applications, which can otherwise eat up battery life and memory, even when sitting unused.

There are several methods to help a battery hold a charge longer. One of the simplest is allowing the battery to die completely and then charging the battery for two to three days while the phone remains off. Other methods require a few more steps. The phone is out of use for extended periods of time during these remedies. Consider having a backup phone on hand. If the home remedies do not work, the battery likely needs replacing due to a defect or damage.

Removing the SIM Card to Recharge
Turn the phone off and remove the battery and the subscriber identity module (SIM) card. Leave these out for two minutes, and then put only the battery back in the phone. Leaving out the SIM card prevents getting calls during this process. Keeping the phone off, plug it into the battery charger and allow it to charge completely. Once the charge is complete, take the phone off the charger and power it up, but do not replace the SIM card. Keep all applications closed, and close any that may open automatically. Allow the battery to drain until the phone turns itself off. Once this happens, remove the battery. Wait a few minutes, and then replace the SIM card and the battery, keeping the phone off. Recharge the phone to a complete charge while in the off position. Turn on the phone once it is completely charged. The battery should now hold a charge better.

Physically Repairing a Phone Battery
Other methods are simple, using household items to repair a weak battery. For both these methods, turn the phone off and remove the battery before beginning.

Cold Storage
Wrap the battery in newspaper and then two layers of plastic wrap. Put the battery in the freezer for three days and then put it in a cool, dry place for two days. Replace the battery in the phone and charge it. Placing the battery in a cold area reduces the leakage current, which increases the power.

Oxidation Removal
Using an eraser, gently wipe the metal contacts on the battery and inside the phone. Prolonged use creates oxidation, causing a weak battery and a bad contact.

ANDROID Synchronization on Google Account is Turned Off, How To ENABLE Synchronization

Synchronization on Google Account is Turned Off, How To ENABLE Synchronization

 Your Syncing o Google Account is Turned Off, and you cant figure it out how to turn it back ON.

♦♦Here is the Process, Just follow this options:

 Instead of being under the account it's under Data Usage.

 DATA Usage > Menu > Auto Sync Data

 Now go to your account then select "Google Sync" and choose which options you like to make Sync Enable.

 That's it. Enjoy....!!! 

How to charge android battery (Keep Android Battery Healthy)

Everyone's concern is how should you charge your iPhone or Android to get extended battery life.

Batteries do not enjoy eternal life. Most smartphone manufacturers say their devices rate their batteries at 300-500 cycles. Apple claims that its laptop batteries reach 80 percent of their original capacity after 1,000 charges. After this point batteries aren’t able to hold as much electricity and will power your device for increasingly shorter periods of time.

So here’s some tips to extend your battery’s lifespan, be that in an iPhone, Android phone, Windows phone, tablet, or laptop.

The big questions about how to re-charge a battery is whether you should let it run to zero before re-charging to 100%.

One reason why people are unsure is something they’ve heard of called the battery “memory effect”.


What is battery memory effect?
Battery memory effect is about batteries remembering remaining charge if you didn’t let them go all the way to zero too often. So a battery frequently charged from 20% to 80% might ‘forget’ about the 40% that’s left uncharged (0-20% and 80-100%). Sounds crazy but that’s sort of true – but only for older nickel-based (NiMH and NiCd) batteries, not the lithium-ion batteries in your phone.

Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries don’t suffer the memory effect so you almost need to do the opposite – charge them often but not all the way throughout the day, and don’t let them drop to zero.


Don’t charge battery from zero to 100%
The rule with Li-ion batteries is to keep them 50% or more most of the time. When it drops below 50% top it up a little if you can. A little a few times a day seems to be the optimum to aim for.

But don’t charge it all the way to 100%. It won’t be fatal to your battery if you do a full recharge – most of us are forced to do this every now and again in emergencies. But constantly doing a full recharge will shorten the battery’s lifespan.

So a good range to aim for when charging a Li-ion battery is from about 40% to 80% in one go. Try not to let the battery drop below 20%.


When I should do a full battery charge
Experts recommend that you do a full zero to 100% battery recharge (a "charge cycle") maybe once a month only. This recalibrates the battery – a bit like restarting your computer, or, for humans, going on holiday! The same goes for laptops, by the way.


Should I charge my phone overnight?
Most modern smartphones are clever enough to stop charging when full, so there isn'y a great risk in leaving your phone charging overnight. But some experts recommend you remove the phone from a case if charging for a long time, as a case could lead to over heating – which Lithium-ion batteries do not like (see below).


Should I use fast battery charging?
Many Android phones have a feature that allows for fast charging. Samsung even calls its technology “ultra fast charging”. Motorola boasts about its Droid Turbo that promises an 8 hour charge in just 15 minutes! HTC’s Rapid Charger 2.0 charges devices such as the One M8, One E8 and Desire Eye 40 percent faster.

These phones have special code usually located in a chip known as the Power Management IC (PMIC) that communicates with the charger you are using and requests that it send power at a higher voltage.

Apple’s iPhone 7 doesn’t feature fast charging but its Qualcomm PMIC is smart enough to recognise when you use a higher-amp charger (like the one you get with the iPad), and that’s a good thing because fast charging will heat up that Li-ion battery and cause it increased wear and tear.

For the same reason, don’t leave your phone in a hot car, on the beach or next to the oven. A hot battery will suffer long-term effects on its lifespan. And so will a super-cold one, so don’t leave your device in the freezer or out in the snow!

So, if you can, switch off fast charging on your Android phone.


Storing battery tips
Don’t leave a Li-ion battery li-ing around too long at 0%. Try to leave it at around 40-50%. These batteries drain at about 5-10% a month when not in use. If you let the battery discharge completely and leave it uncharged for a long period of time it may eventually become incapable of holding a charge at all (that’s properly dead). It’s unlikely you’ll leave your smartphone lying in a drawer for very long, but some people do leave their laptop, battery packs or spare batteries unused for long periods of time. So try to keep them all at least half charged.