7 Steps to Cleaning the Laser Toner From Your Laser Printer

Cleaning a laser printer, fax, or copier of laser toner can

be easy, provided you know what you're doing and use the

right tools. This article will share with you some simple

tips to help you clean your laser printers of laser toner

like a pro.

A word to the wise: Before I begin, I'd like to stress that

this article is intended only to assist you with basic

cleaning of the laser toner from your laser printer. If

you're unsure of your ability to perform any sort of printer

maintenance, or if performing such maintenance will void the

printer's warranty, you should contact a qualified service

professional.

Some safety issues: Though laser printers come in various

shapes and sizes, they all use laser toner (that messy black

powder). While cleaning your laser printer, the last thing

you want is to have laser toner in your lungs or on your

skin. The tips provided in this article should help reduce

the chance of you being bathed in laser toner while cleaning

your printer.

Laser toner particles are so fine that they

can take more than fifteen minutes to settle if they become

airborne make that hours if you have fans or air-

conditioners circulating them through an office. To avoid

inhaling laser toner particles, try to keep the air in the

cleaning area stable and leave the printer area for several

minutes after cleaning. When you return, move slowly, open

all windows, and begin vacuuming any laser toner from the

floor, tabletops, and so forth.

Another dangerous area common to all laser printers is the

fuser-roller compartment. The fuser roller gets extremely

hot during the printing process and is usually covered for

safety. Burns can occur, however, if you accidentally

uncover and touch the roller. I recommend that you leave

your printer off for at least one hour before cleaning it of

laser toner.

As with all electrical equipment, make sure that the power

cable is unplugged before you begin any work.

Here are the basic tools you need to clean the laser toner

from the laser printer:

-Vacuum

-Compressed can of air

-Wash cloth

-Mask

-Cotton Swabs

-Isopropyl Alcohol (99 percent pure)

-Paint Brush (soft bristle, about a half-inch wide)

-Latex gloves (optional)

Compressed air:

You can buy this in any department store or

office supply store. Ranges in price from $3.00 to $10.00

per 10 oz. bottle. Use adequate ventilation please.

Mask:

You'll want to prevent laser toner particles from

entering your throat and lungs. While laser toner inhalation

has not been proven to cause serious health problems,

respiratory tract irritation can occur with exposure to

large amounts of laser toner dust. Laser toner can also

contain potentially hazardous compounds, such as styrene,

ethyl benzene, and xylene isomers. Use a mask that filters

both odors and fine particles, such as the ones used for

painting and sanding. You can usually find these at local

hardware stores.

Cotton swabs:

You can use the regular cotton swabs found in your local

drugstore or those made especially for cleaning printers.

The printer swabs come with six-inch-long sticks.

Isopropyl alcohol:

Do not use regular rubbing alcohol. Either use chemicals

that are specifically designed to clean the heads of VCRs,

cassette tapes, tape drives, and the like or use 99 percent

pure isopropyl alcohol, which evaporates without leaving any

residue.

Paint brush (soft bristle, about a half-inch wide):

This is used to brush out toner from tight crevices. Since

bristles may fall out during the cleaning process, pull out

any loose ones before you use the brush. I don't recommend

using toothbrushes.

Latex gloves (optional):

These must fit tightly on your hands since you want to

maintain skin sensitivity. Drugstores usually sell them in

boxes of 100. This is to keep your hands clean but if you

don't have them you can just wash up with soap and water

afterwards.

Okay, let's begin cleaning that laser printer of the laser

toner. Now that you have the tools, it's time to unplug the

laser printer, let it sit for one hour, and then follow the

steps below:

1. Put on your mask and latex gloves if you have them.

2. Open the printer and gently remove the laser toner

cartridge or laser toner bottle.

3. Use your wash cloth and wipe the laser toner cartridge.

Place the laser toner cartridge aside.

4. Use your vacuum to remove spilled laser toner from within

the printer's internal compartment. Try to prevent the

vacuum's nozzle from actually touching any of the printer's

internal surfaces.

5. Use your paintbrush to remove laser toner from any

crevices. Use gentle motions and vacuum as necessary.

6. Many laser printers use very fine wires (called 'corona

wires') that are often exposed. If your printer has such

wires, take care to avoid vacuuming or brushing them.

Breaking a corona wire can be a costly mistake. Dip a cotton

swab into isopropyl alcohol and gently run it along the

length of the wire. Also be sure to clean the underside of

the wires. Never apply pressure.

7.Reinsert the laser toner cartridge, close the printer,

reconnect the power cord, and you are done.

Avoid using the wash cloth inside the printer. Though you

can use the wash cloth to clean the inside, I do not

recommend it. There are many sharp points that can tear the

cloth's fiber and leave loose strands inside the printer.

OEM vs. Remanufactured Laser Toner Cartridges Although many

people buy OEM Name Brand laser toner cartridges, little do

they know, they really are remanufactured! Can you believe

it? Seriously folks, why spend many more dollars on OEM's

when you can get THE SAME quality laser toner cartridges for

half or less than half the price? When you buy an OEM laser

toner cartridge, just look at the box! It says "Made of new

and recycled materials". The OEM companies want you to send

your laser toner cartridge back to them , so they can

remanufacture it , and sell it back to you as new! Buying

remanufactured laser toner cartridges saves the environment.

Millions of laser toner cartridges get dumped in landfills

every year. So, please, save the environment,and save your

money!

Happy Cleaning!

Rafael Nunez is responsible for all product quality at Alchemy Toners, Inc. Find out how to get money for your empty laser toner cartridges while saving money and the environment by visiting: laser toner cartridges

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Better Mobile Linkbuilding In 5 Easy Steps

You may have read in SEOMoz a few years ago that link building is unnecessary for mobile rankings. When it comes to smartphone search engine results, data suggests otherwise.

When I took a random sample of 11 of the most popular mobile queries and examined the characteristics of the top 5 Google smartphone results for each query, the average domain authority (using SEOMoz metrics) for the first five positions was 83/100, and the first result (on average) had as many links pointing to the first listing as it did to listings 2 through 5.

Furthermore, there was only one site in the sample that ranked with fewer than 10 links, and three quarters of the total sample had more than 1,000 total links. As with desktop search, it appears linking and link building matters in mobile search.

Historically, conversations around mobile link building have been sparse, as mobile sites have been seen more as a link equity problem for brands, rather than as something that can help them gain links.

Performics, for example, recently compared mobile sites to print URLs, in that they both contribute to reduced link equity as a result of duplicate content. John Mueller of Google also recently recommended using the canonical tag on mobile sites that duplicate desktop content.

These recommendations are fine if all you’re doing with your mobile site is duplicating desktop content. However, brands that simply use their mobile site to reformat desktop content for mobile users are missing the point.

If you’re old enough to remember pre-bubble early Internet days, when some brands thought it was okay to put PDFs of your print brochures online and expect them to do as well in a digital context, you should know better.

Site owners want to link to content that is unique, innovative and unusual, and cutting-edge mobile sites can be just that. Break out of the mobile sites as duplicate content trap and follow these guidelines to possibly get more links to your mobile site than your desktop site.

If you’re going mobile, make sure your mobile strategy includes a mobile site, and not just apps. Apart from the many problems inherent with focusing on mobile apps as a way of gaining a mobile audience, mobile sites appear in search results for more queries, and link equity to the sites will ultimately benefit your domain, and not just the app stores you submit to.

Just having a mobile website is enough to get you additional links from certain sites that focus on mobile content. If you have a really good one, letting sites that cover mobile content know about it could get you listed in a top mobile sites story, such as this one that ran on Mashable last year.

If it’s exceptional, you could get an additional link from Time magazine or the Webby Awards. And if it’s maybe not exceptional but not outright embarrassing, you can get a link from WAP Review, Mobile Awesomeness, or one of the many mobile directories that have emerged with the mobile Web.

It’s worth noting that all of these links are only available to brands that have built mobile content, so if you haven’t yet, it’s not yet too late to start.

I recently looked at Staples’ mobile site, which is one of many sites that mobilizes its desktop content using a transcoder, rather than builds content specifically for mobile users. Because searchers often search using the same keywords, but with different frequencies, this is often a missed opportunity to address the mobile user experience of the mobile site.

For example, with Staples’ mobile site, it’s clear from the branded mobile queries found in the Google Keyword Tool that when it comes to Staples, searchers overwhelmingly care about finding information about their local Staples store.

Smart marketers would use this information to their advantage, and give the searcher not just a stripped down version of their desktop site, but also a mobile experience that highlights the locations they’re looking for and uses the unique properties of mobile to make a connection to the stores as soon as possible.

For example, instead of including a separate page adjacent to the home page with a store locator that requires the user to input his/her information, the home page could easily use the unique properties of mobile to find the user’s location based on GPS and display a map and contact information for the nearest Staples to the user.

It could also link to an optimized store page that would give local shoppers a list of products on sale at the local store with the option to buy and pick up in store. Perhaps Staples could even include mobile coupons to redeem in-store or time-sensitive deals that could be redeemed on the device at the nearest Staples.

These things would be of value to mobile users, and they would help brands get links to content that they can’t get just by transcoding their desktop site for mobile users.

I saw Alan Moore of SMLXL speak at a mobile conference a few years ago, and he told a story about a site in Japan that allowed mobile users to map the shortest path to their destination in a rainstorm that passed under as many awnings as possible.

There are apps now like Shazam that use the strengths of mobile phone and design around them, rather than taking something that was built for the desktop and making it mobile. Google recently announced that their mobile visual search technology is available in  desktop search, but it started as a mobile innovation that made desktop computer users want to try.

If one of the great truisms of SEO is “content is king”, why wouldn’t that apply to mobile content as well?

The best sites play to the strengths of mobile in their design, and compel users to share and link to them. What is it that you can provide your users that would be so useful to them while mobile that they are compelled to share, link to and write about it?

If you can’t answer that, it may be time to go back to the drawing board and provide something useful that doesn’t yet exist on your desktop site. Most modern browsers now have access to the gyroscope, camera and accelerometer. Use them to create something unique that mobile users will find invaluable, and the links will find you.

Yes, if you duplicate desktop content in a mobile format, the best practice today is to use CSS to reformat the content on a single URL or use canonical tags to redirect the mobile link equity.

However, if you just do that you’re missing out on a lot of mobile traffic and links, as I hope I’ve demonstrated in this article. Better to add canonical tags to transcoded desktop content, and build unique content for mobile users that will help you be found when they search.

Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.

Related Topics: Mobile Mondays | SEO - Search Engine Optimization | SEO: Duplicate Content | SEO: Mobile Search

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SEO Copywriters - Five Steps to Your Great Web Writing Partner

Google and the other search engines have never been more sophisticated. Even for SEO specialists, trying to understand the engines' changing algorithms is often like trying to lasso rain. While SEO copywriters undoubtedly require specialised knowledge and the ability to generate clear, well-written, relevant content on diverse subjects, be alert to those who try to baffle you with false science. Google itself recognises that the key to effective SEO writing is well-written, relevant content.

When you are shortlisting SEO copywriters, here are five important things to consider.

(1) Has the SEO copywriter written SEO copy before?

Just as designing a Formula One car is different to designing a 4x4, so SEO copy writing is very different from writing newsletters or brochures. A good SEO copywriter will be eager to tell you about work they've done. Visit some sites to see for yourself; see if their clients include SEO, website or online marketing specialists.

(2) Do they have a website themselves?

How did you find the SEO copywriter's own site? If you found it through a search engine, that's a good sign. But anyone can cram keywords or key phrases into a website. Does the site read well to a human reader? Copy that looks stilted or overly repetitive should ring alarm bells: do you really want your site to read like that? It's something to think about when considering SEO copywriters...

(3) Is your SEO copywriter based locally?

With modern technology it's not essential for you to be in the same town, county or even country as your SEO copywriter. But in practice, as with so many aspects of business, it's often advantageous to work with a local SEO copywriter. It's all about building and maintaining relationships: sometimes there's nothing better than sitting down face-to-face.

(4) What are their fees?

Like any product or service, you get what you pay for with SEO copywriters so beware of some of the 'cheap and cheerful' SEO copy out there. Ideally, (provided you've provided a clear brief) your SEO copywriter should give you a fixed price quotation (not just an estimate). This will usually cover a first draft of SEO copywriting and at least two rounds of revisions. Provided that you don't change the brief mid-project, your copywriter shouldn't change their fee either. And of course, you will provide the required keywords or key-phrases before they start work for you...

(5) Have they got experience in your sector?

It doesn't necessarily matter if an SEO copywriter hasn't worked in your sector before. In fact, a web writer who comes to your field afresh may bring a new perspective and a refreshing approach to your work. Most important of all is that they can get excited about what you do, interested in the features and BENEFITS of your product/service, and that they are used to writing solid SEO copy. (A solid background in marketing and conventional copywriting is a great bonus.)

Follow these guidelines and you'll be off to a great start with your new SEO copywriter. Wherever possible, try to meet (or at least speak with) them before you start work. People, as we know, buy people: a capable SEO copywriter with a friendly, client-focused approach is a powerful ally as you promote your business online. Pick him or her carefully. Then start enjoying the benefit.

Al Hidden is probably one of the more experienced conventional and seo copywriters based in Gloucestershire, England. His background is in technical sales, marketing management, technical writing, copywriting and PR. He specializes in technical, marketing, PR, website and SEO copywriting and copy-editing for large and small organisations in Gloucestershire and the rest of the UK.

http://www.alhidden.com

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