One of the main advantages that I always associate with Macs and OSX, besides the obvious better OS is the lack of worrying about drivers and compatibility. Sure Macs still use drivers, every computer does, but every time a new piece of hardware is installed in Windows you have to find the drivers blah blah. But if you are one of those people still having to deal with Windows here are some sites that might aid you greatly in terms of getting those hard to find drivers. You know, for those old floppy drives that you suddenly remembered you needed to use to pull those important files off the 10 year old computer that has been in the same place for 8 years. So here are two helpful sites:

• Driver Guide - So if you were smart enough to simply type “driver” into Google this is the first site that will popup. This really isn’t a novel site, it has the drivers and you can download them. All the drivers (or at least the ones I looked at) were free, and registering for the site is free as well. So for your driver needs this is definitely the best bet.
• Microsoft - Now you know I really dislike Microsoft and their products, so I don’t care for their site that much. The navigation takes some thought and there is just so much content that getting to what you specifically need can be a challenge. Nonetheless this should be your first stop for drivers related to any of Microsoft’s software (i.e. Windows). So check them out for software related drivers, and go to Driver Guide for anything related to hardware etc.

These are just some quick tips of finding drivers so if you know of any other site that has some really good resources about drivers and/or where to get them please leave them in the comments below.

The greatest challenge to website designers isn’t building the site but getting good traffic to promote the site. Simply submitting your sites url to Google isn’t going to do much in the long run. People use many more search engines than Google, and directories are essentials for links which translate into a higher page-rank on the search engine.

Linkreferral helps with this. The site is similar to a directory with tons of sites under different categories, but instead of paying to get to the top, users have to visit a certain number of sites and review a certain number to stay at the top of their category.

This is an ingenious idea since it provides a community where people can review your website and give some ideas on how to improve it. Best of all, your site is receiving organic traffic which promotes the site.

Registering for the site is extremely easy. Just go to Linkreferral, and sign up. After that the instructions are fairly easy to follow.

Keeping your site at the top of the rankings for each category is very simple. All you have to do is visit 30 sites (which is basically clicking the link then closing the window), write 5 reviews of different sites, post one forum topic or answer, and add one website to your favorites list. This will ensure that your site will stay at the top of its category. In all it usually takes 15 minutes to do. For the review though, please write a good detailed review, just writing “good site, good effort” isn’t worth much to the end user. Instead write what you thought about the site idea, the layout, the navigation, or other things that the user can take as advice. If you wouldn’t want to receive the review you’re writing, then don’t write it.

So if you want to promote your website and generate over 30 unique hits per day, then check out Linkreferral. Everyone I know who has used it said it was a great idea and works out really well.