The internet can still be a fun place to run a business and make a bit of money. In spite of all the stories you hear, and some less then reputable individuals, legitimate companies make a decent profit from working in the online world. While the barrier to starting an online business these days is pretty low from an expense perspective, it still not that easy to start from scratch. Say for instance, that you’ve had your own website for a little while, and you have a pretty decent readership, but have decided you want to use your skills and expertise to help others do the same.
Well, then starting an SEO company might be a good step in that direction. Now, depending on how you got your initial website off the ground, your skills may or may not be appropriate for helping others get their websites established and ranking in the search engines. As with many businesses, doing SEO work has a couple of different approaches you could use. Some approaches are considered acceptable by the search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo). That approach is often known as white hat SEO. In the long term I really do believe that white hat SEO has longer staying power. Then, there is a whole host of approaches that are particularly favored by the search engines. Those tactics would commonly be considered black hat SEO. I believe that in reality most companies do a little bit of both. Customers can also be picky about the tactics their SEO vendors employ. That’s something you may want to think about, as you get your business off the ground.
Published on September 7, 2010 11:40 am.
Filed under: Featured, seo
The new Kindle DX is the perfect solution for the avid reader on the go who doesn’t want to carry around the book of the day or week. The Kindle has tons of features that really help you to live a more minimalist lifestyle while still maintaining productivity.
To start the Kindle DX is nice and thin. It is about as thick as most magazines and has an impressively large 9″ screen to read from. This size of screen is perfect for reading reports, newspapers and other graphics rich publications. It fits perfectly in your hands and isn’t too big to be a nuisance Its just right. Details »
Published on September 1, 2010 2:25 am.
Filed under: Featured, Gadgets Tags: e reader, ebook reader, kindle dx, new kindle dx
I must admit, that running my own business is an interesting proposition. There are plenty of things to be learned, money to be made, and mistakes to recover from. My background is that if IT computer systems development. Which means, that I was the guy that designed, developed, and fixed the administrative types of systems that kept a company running. Systems like Personnel, Payroll, Financials, and the Order Management System. While I liked certain parts of my previous jobs, I must admit that starting and running my own business held many new challenges for me.
So, when it came time to consider my companies need for administrative software, I was at an interesting crossroads. Did I use my expertise to develop and design my own systems from scratch, or do I buy off the shelf solutions. The answer, is actually a little bit of both. A hybrid approach. For the systems like book keeping and payroll, I decided to go with off the shelf solutions. But for certain systems, like track and maintain my marketing and promotion solutions I had built my own. And, I must admit, that it’s now one of the cooler aspects of my job. I don’t do it a lot, but when I get a chance, I do develop and design custom software to keep my business running. The best thing I like about this side of my job, is all the boring meeting and analysis takes place inside my head. I’m both the end user and the IT department. What I also like about it, is how much easier my day to day work gets, when the system is up and functioning to my exact requirements.
Published on August 24, 2010 1:38 pm.
Filed under: Featured, Software Reviews
My wife always complained going through school as a child, that dictionaries were flawed instruments of learning. Basically they give you a book that supposed to tell you how words are spelled, but in order to look up the spelling of the word, you have to know how it’s spelled in the first place. Seems odd at first glance, now doesn’t it. Well, of course the intelligent answer to the problem is , that you don’t know how to spell the word perfectly to look it up, you just need to have some idea of the spelling. As long as you have some idea of the correct spelling, you can probably find it in the dictionary.
Well, most of the time that does work, but not always. That’s where computer dictionary software comes into play. Intelligent word check spellers are one of the best applications to come with the computer age. They’re still not perfect yet, but they do a pretty good job of guessing what word it is your trying to use, and giving you a list of highly probable correct spellings. With more and more writing being done online, in different multiple applications, there is still room for improvement. While every word processor comes with a spell checker, there are plenty of other programs that don’t. MSN messenger, and some text editors are just a few that come to mind. A word spell checker that works across all the programs on your computer is an idea whose time has come.
Published on August 24, 2010 9:43 am.
Filed under: Featured, Software Reviews
I was probably one of the last people I know of to jump on the mobile phones bandwagon a number of years ago. OK, maybe my Mom held out a little longer. It’s not that I don’t like gadgets, or that I have a problem with people being able to call me whenever they want (well maybe a little), it was just that cellular carriers in my country seemed like such a bunch of crooks at the time. Their contracts were unbelievably convoluted, their charges were ridiculously high, and there was little choice in providers. But, eventually I started traveling quite a bit, and there were a few discount cell providers starting up. Eventually, I went with one of the discount providers, that has since been bought up by one of the national providers, and got an average phone, with no contract.
Once I stopped traveling though, I stopped using the phone, and just stopped making the pay-as-you-go payments. It would seem at the time that I was done with hand held mobiles for a while. I never however, stopped keeping my eye on the whole mobile phone / smartphone / mobile computing marketplace. Running my own internet based business, I was finding it more and more important to stay connected wherever I was. So, it made sense to me to once again enter the fray. I purchased a Nokia N900 a month or so ago, and am loving it. It’s really more a computer than a phone, but that’s exactly what I was looking for.
Published on August 17, 2010 8:56 am.
Filed under: Featured, Mobile Phone
Having a really powerful laptop is something that is quite popular these days. Notebooks are used as desktops, and come even with large screens that are good enough for some serious gaming. Being packed with the most recent multi-core processors and high-tech graphics processing units, they also produce quite a lot of heat which can be problematic in the long run. When idle laptops don’t usually produce that much heat, but when a resource demanding software is run on the computer, it can cause the temperature inside the chassis to spike up big time. Excessive heat can cause the operating system to freeze when you are playing a game and the action is at the maximum – exactly when you don’t want the computer to crash. Details »
Published on August 15, 2010 9:01 am.
Filed under: Featured, Hardware, Software Reviews Tags: laptop cooler lounge, laptop cooling
GPS vehicle tracking has numerous benefits; however, using this technology is a debatable issue. Companies worldwide are proponents of GPS tracking and are using this advanced technology with wide success. On the other side of the coin, opponents of the technology bring up some strong points. It is valuable to take a look at both sides of the debate.
While vehicle tracking can be used for many purposes; the most common use in the business environment is tracking the usage of a company’s vehicles. When companies initially started using this technology they were met with much opposition and outrage from employees who believed that using a GPS tracking system violated their constitutional rights. Furthermore, employees believed their loyalty to their employers was being questioned. Details »
Published on August 15, 2010 2:43 am.
Filed under: Featured, Gadgets Tags: gps vehicle tracking
As technology has advanced it has made laptop computers more expensive. Owning a high end laptop not only costs upwards of $800 but also has the disadvantage of turning obsolete with a short period of time. A new operating system or even some software that you need may no longer be available in the laptop you own. With such condition prevailing, is it any wiser to invest in a new laptop. Would it not be a better option to just rent a laptop for short periods of time? Common sense would suggest that this is the right way of going about things in the short term. Details »
Published on August 12, 2010 10:15 am.
Filed under: Featured, Hardware Tags: inventory control software, laptop desktop, lease management software, rent a laptop, wireless laptop computers
As far as remote controls go the Sky remote is up there with the best. It’s been a part of many people’s homes and lives for many, many years.
Why is this?
I think a big part of its success comes from the obvious attention to detail that Sky has put into designing it. They clearly spent a lot of time and money on it in the beginning and it’s paid off. It has a very distinct and clear look to it, whenever anyone sets eyes on the remote it’s unmistakeable that it belongs to a Sky digibox.
The shape and button positioning have obviously been paid close attention as well. All the buttons are well labelled and not too packed together. It’s easy for someone to pick up the Sky remote and get using it straight away. I think this is great for homes with families that include older or younger people who may not be so used to using technology. It becomes familiar very quickly and allows anyone to feel comfortable using it, unlike a lot of remotes which feature large numbers of often unnecessary and confusing buttons.
One of the best features of the Sky remote is undoubtedly that it doubles as a universal TV remote. This allows you to use the remote to control both your Sky and your TV from the same remote, it just requires a very simple connection set up and it works with just the press of a button.
So overall the Sky remote is a wonderful piece of design with the end user in mind, but are there any negatives to it? Well really its look and function are both very pleasing, although there are cheaper alternatives out there. Many other companies produce compatible remotes that are often much lower in price then the genuine remote. It’s definitely worth comparing if you should go genuine or get a cheaper alternative.
Published on August 12, 2010 4:55 am.
Filed under: Featured, Gadgets
Announced on June 15th, the Nokia 5228 is one of Nokia’s latest Symbian OS devices. Intended to be a mid-level smartphone offering, the 5228 has some nice features for its price range, making it an ideal choice for both users and their wallets. With a touch screen optimised for media display as well as messaging, the 5228 is also an ideal platform for social entertainment and networking. Currently offered with front covers in either black or white coupled with red, pink, blue, yellow, silver, or dark silver coloured back cover plates, the 5228 is a stylish, modern looking mobile device poised to become the dominant bargain smartphone of the year. You can find lots of cheap phones by browsing around online.
Running on v9.4 of the Symbian OS, the 5228 makes use of the 5th Edition Series 60 UI along with its bright 3.2” 640 x 360 nHD resistive touch screen for navigation and interaction. Tactile feedback helps users navigate more accurately, while an on-screen soft key QWERTY keyboard and handwriting recognition offer more input capabilities to make it easier to write messages or take notes quickly. Instant messaging, text messaging, and MMS multimedia messaging capabilities combine with multiple email account support via Ovi Mail and Mail for Exchange make it possible to keep in touch with friends, family, or co-workers. There are lots of great Nokia 5228 deals to be found through comparison websites for mobile phone prices.
In terms of entertainment, the 5228 comes with a 2.0 megapixel camera with 3x digital zoom capable of capturing images or nHD video at 640 x 360 (30 fps), as well as a built-in video editor to allow you to make quick, simple changes to your recorded video and easily share it via Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace. Additionally, the Media Bar provides quick access to your media apps, such as the music player, which offers support for all of the most common music formats. With the 5228′s battery you can get up to 33 hours of music playback, using the 3.5mm stereo headphone jack or Bluetooth 2.1 to listen to your music wirelessly.
Published on August 9, 2010 10:10 am.
Filed under: Featured, Mobile Phone Tags: nokia, nokia 5228, symbian os
As cool as it is to surf the web, play computer games, and download all kinds of great computer programs, it would be naive to believe that everything on the internet was safe for you and your computer. While the internet is a great place, because it offers so much information, services, and free computer software there is also a minority of people that are hoping to gain by making use of your computer for less than honorable purposes. A good antivirus program download is all you need to protect yourself form these types of individuals.
I’ve used a number of anti virus programs in the past, that have after about 10 years of surfing the web have caused me very few problems. It’s best to spend some time reviewing the different software programs available, or to read what others have to say about the programs. There are some nasty programs out there masquerading as anti-virus programs which are really viruses themselves. It would behoove you to do some due-diligence of your own before downloading anything. This Bitdefender review is a good place to start.
One of the things you’ll want to check for, when researching anti-virus programs, is the frequency with which the vendor updates the database of known viruses, and their software. While a virus defender may work well today, the frequency which new viruses pop up is alarming, a anti-virus programs to to be constantly updated. With a little bit of looking around, you should have not problem finding the program to do the job for you.
Published on July 27, 2010 10:20 am.
Filed under: Featured, Software Reviews