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Archive for January, 2012

There are a number of websites which maintain databases of freely downloadable audiobooks. The audiobooks that are available as free downloads are often classic titles that have entered into the public domain and are no longer under copyright law.

Here are a number of websites which offer free public domain audiobooks:

AudiobooksForFree.com – AudiobooksForFree.com contains a large database of free audiobooks. This service does a superb job of organizing audiobook titles into categories and offers newer royalty-free audiobooks in addition to those in the public domain. Unfortunately, this website has not been updated since 2008.

FreeClassicAudiobooks.com – FreeClassicAudiobooks.com offers classic audiobooks in MP3 and M4B format. The service contains a few dozen titles, including a free audiobook copy of the King James Bible and Spanish, Italian and French language learning audiobooks.
LearnOutLoud.com – LearnOutLoud is a service that provides free copies of audiobooks, lectures, speeches, sermons and interviews in audio (MP3) and video format. This website has approximately 3,400 titles available as of March 2011.

Librivox.com – Librivox is one of the larger services that offer free public domain audiobooks. As of March 2011, Librivox had approximately 4,250 titles available. Librivox also organizes volunteers to create audiobook recordings of public domain audiobooks for free consumption.

OpenCulture.com – OpenCulture, a website dedicated to providing free educational and cultural media, maintains a list of freely downloadable audiobooks in MP3 format. Most of the titles that are available from OpenCulture are classics and other public domain works. This website also maintains a list of free podcasts.

Project Gutenberg -Project Gutenberg, a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, maintains a library of public domain audiobooks. Some of the titles are read by narrators and some were created using synthesized technology (computer generated voices). Project Gutenberg collaborates with Librivox and AudiobooksForFree.com to organize volunteers to create human-read recordings of audiobooks.

There are also a couple of websites which offer newer titles that are independently produced outside of the major publishing houses, including:

New Fiction – New Fiction offers free modern-day radio dramas called iSoaps. The titles on New Fiction vary from other free audiobook websites in that they are not public domain books in audiobook format, rather newer fiction titles from independent authors.

Podiobooks – Podiobooks provides free audiobooks in episodic form over RSS so that readers can enjoy titles one chapter at a time. The service contains approximately 500 original fiction titles.

Storynory – Storynory offers free audiobook children’s stories. This U.K. – based website provides audiobook versions of dozens of classic fairytales, educational stories and original titles.

Domain names (or DNS addresses for the geeks) are a system by which people like you and me can reach the computer we want and get the information without the hassle of remembering a sequence of seemingly unrelated numbers ( called IP addresses )

Domain names are further suffixed to provide the user with some means of identification of the nature of the website and a means of classification for the web sites themselves. These suffixes are referred to as top – level domains.

The common examples of these are .com, .org, .net, the newer .biz, .name, .info etc.

These suffixes help to provide further information about where the computer is located and what is it prime reason for existence i.e. for commercial purposes, non-profit organization, networking purposes or purely as a B-2-B site (business to business site).

On the basis of their primary motive, domain names are registered. Hence, since most businesses exist for commerce, the most common suffix is … yes you guessed it right! .COM!!

So common is this particular top level domain that it is mostly implied when we visit a website. Hence, for more purposes than purely commercial is this suffix used.

A brief overview of the common suffixes is outlined below

SUFFIX Meaning

.com Commercial Site

.org Non-profit organization site

.net Site within a larger network.

.biz Purely for Business-to-Business sites

.name For identity purposes of an individual or organization

.info Informational sites providing no e-commerce

.co.uk Site based in the United Kingdom

.co.in Site based in India

Note: The last to suffixes can be replaced by most other country’s two letter abbreviation. Eg. For a Japanese site .co.jp would be the suffix.

Check whether your domain name is available here.

Does a press release take years of experience to write well? No, indeed. An effective press release follows a standard or boilerplate format, and for a reason: it’s designed to capture the attention of news outlets everywhere, whether on line or in print. And some people say that a press release, on line, can remain out there for years, gaining attention and search engine optimization. Here are some tips for writing great press release headlines, along with a standard outline for your content.

THE HEADER

The most powerful part of a good press release, and the one that does benefit from skill and experience, is a header that grabs your reader and makes very clear why it’s important to read the rest of your release. The header is like a newspaper headline, and is sometimes called “the hook”-because it does just that, it captures your reader’s attention. With practice, you can produce headers that draw your readers in, and may even be used by the newspaper or on line site that is presenting your news.

One way to practice is to study newspaper and magazine headlines. Which ones intrigue you, or make you want to read more? How do they draw you in? Consider these sets of examples, each one from low to high effectiveness.

Example #1:
LOW: New hi-tech snow shovel now on the market
MEDIUM: Hi-tech snow shovel a marvel of innovation
HIGH: Hi-tech shovel makes even heavy snow easy to remove

Example #2:
LOW: Association of American House Painters Conference to take place in February
MEDIUM: House painters will gather to explore latest in quality, technique and color
HIGH: Chemistry and color to be the center of house painters conference in February
 
Example #3:
LOW: Community Day Center announces new executive director
MEDIUM: New Director brings valued experience to community day center
HIGH: Former head of pioneering shelter to lead community day services
 
OUTLINE FOR STANDARD PRESS RELEASES

Here’s a boilerplate outline for any and every press release you may write:

FOR: Who is the organization releasing the information? Your hospital, yourself, your company, your school?

DATE: Date of the release

CONTACT: Who is the person to call for more information about the press release itself? Usually this is a public relations contact.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE or EMBARGOED UNTIL DATE GIVEN: This tells readers, especially reporters, either that the information is immediately available for public consumption or that they are asked to wait.

TITLE This is where you can do your most creative work. It’s where “the hook” belongs.

BODY: Consider the “who what why where when” rule for the body of your release. Arrange your information by the level of its importance–start with the most important point. If your association is holding a major annual conference, start with that and with the theme of the conference-why is the conference taking place? What are the advantages of attending? Tell your readers where and when the conference is to be held. Provide background about your association, number of members, how long it’s been in existence. And, finally, tell readers whom to contact for more information, whether this is a phone number or a web link.