10 Steps That Could Save Your Business

Folks, today I am just going to share with you one of the better articles I have read recently. Whether you are a “business” or not, and whether you’ve heard some of the advice here before, or not, I think many (most?) of us will benefit from reading: Disaster Recovery: 10 Steps That Could Save Your Business

“The ‘disaster’ in ‘disaster recovery’ comes in many forms — flood, fire, even a serious health issue. The VARs in the following stories were given a second chance and then took no chances in making their business more prepared.” Read more..

Yes, it’s a bit long. But.

Today’s quote: “We acquire the strength we have overcome.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Copyright 2007-2013 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

---

>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<

---

All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.

Quick Tips and news items – a hodgepodge!

Folks, only time today for a few “items of interest”.

* Cisco To Partners: Use Social Media — You Can Bet Your Competitors Are

“Social media sites are no longer just ways to kill time online — they are marketing powerhouses that must be embraced by partners if they hope to stay competitive, Cisco said this week.” Read more..

[ Just one teensy-weensy, little, miniscule problem: doesn’t actually produce sales.. Does it? But it’s proven they sure do waste time..! ]

* Quick Tip: Make Windows 8 File Explorer launch in Computer view

“With the right code you can change the default settings of Windows 8 File Explorer.” Read more..

* Screenshots: Five alternatives to QuickBooks

“Jack Wallen suggests several options that offer a near feature-for-feature comparison to the popular QuickBooks.” View on site..

* Bing Delivers Five Times as Many Malicious Websites as Google

“Searches on Bing returned five times more links to malicious websites than Google searches, according to an 18-month study from German independent testing lab AV-Test. Though search engines have worked to suppress malicious results, the study concluded that malware infested websites still appear in their top results.” Read more..

Come on.. tell me you knew that hackers plant poison websites on the web, and trick Google/Bing/Yahoo into Ranking them in the Top 10.. Please tell me you knew.

* 200+ useful Keyboard Shortcuts for Word 2010. – ShortcutWorld

“225 time-saving Keyboard Shortcuts for Word 2010. Extensive up-to-date reference lists of Keyboard Shortcuts/Hotkeys for Windows, Mac, and …” Learn more..

* I learn something new everyday when I surf the web. For example, I didn’t know there was such a thing as “reptile carpet”.. or that anyone offered a cleaning service..

A valuable skill..

* WordPress, Joomla Sites Under Brute-Force Password Attack

“Thousands of WordPress and Joomla sites are currently under attack by a large botnet brute-forcing passwords. Administrators need to make sure they have strong passwords and unique usernames for their WordPress and Joomla installations.” Read more..

[ “Joomla”?? Who makes up these words! ]

And the hits, they just keep on playing…

* Spammers Piggyback on Boston Attack

“Cybercriminals don’t hesitate when they see an opportunity to spread malware. Not even when it means exploiting as horrific an event as the Boston Marathon bombing.” Read more..

Today’s quote: “There comes a time in every rightly constructed boy’s life that he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure.” ~ Mark Twain

[ Can you believe? I had forgotten that.. so long ago. ]

Copyright 2007-2013 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

---

>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<

---

All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.

Before You Invest In Online Advertising…

Okay, so your company has come up with a new doofangle. Nevermind that this doofangle is basically a copy of someone else’s doofangle, you want a slice of that doofangle-sales pie, (as it hasn’t been sliced up enough yet) and so you have a Product Launch coming up.

And you’re The Marketing Specialist.

And everything you’ve ever heard, or read, says you Have To Have An Online Campaign. And your company has given you the budget. (After all, with the here-today-gone-tomorrow nature of tech, you might not have a company next year if the Doofangle 1 doesn’t sell millions of units.)

So you do your research, and conduct focus groups, and decide that having 20-somethings dance around a fountain holding the Doofangle 1 is what you’re going to go with. It’s zesty, hip, and it is F-U-N-!
You’re going to dress the dancers in vibrant colors, as the Doofangle 1 is a boring black plastic .. rectangle.

So you spend MILLIONS on TV ads. (Which nobody looks at, except to maybe laugh.)

And now you’re ready to launch your online banner ads, using still images from the TV spot. And you’re going to spend more MILLIONS, to get lots of eyeballs.

Oops.

You are now the person responsible for *urinating*-away millions on online ads that only robots looked at. As you didn’t know about click fraud, (a term first coined sometime around 1997) or botnets.

Sorry. But don’t worry. Someone is always hiring Marketing Specialists. A different one calls me at suppertime every night.

(Latest) * Chameleon Botnet Steals Millions

“Internet advertisers are the latest target of a botnet that could be costing them up to $6 million a month.” Read more..

(Last month) * Botnet steals millions from advertisers with fake mouseclicks

“The Bamital botnet defrauded the entire online advertising platform, which is what allows the Internet and many online services to be free..” Read more..

The entire history of defrauding the online advertisers would – I suspect – fill a book. But, “You Have To Have An Online Campaign”.
Everyone says.
I would think, though, that you’d want actual humans to see/hear your marketing efforts.. right?

It isn’t the ad services that take the hit; it’s you, the Doofangle seller.

Oh, well. Not every click is bogus… right? Some sales will happen.. right? But how will you know? That number might not be real either.

Down the rabbit hole.. and ignore the man behind the curtain.

At least with the airwaves advertising, the worst they can do is run your spots from 1am – 3:30am (or show you charts that say they ran all 1,000 spots but only air 200) … This online stuff seems 100% the shadows of vapor.

Today’s quote: “Go on till you come to the end; then stop.” ~ Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

Copyright 2007-2013 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

---

>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<

---

All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.

Facebook, The Advertiser | Website Optimization Strategies

Quickly, for now, an interesting read. I’ll try to get more up later on today.

Big Data: Facebook’s next big idea

“The Facebook fallacy is that at its core the Social Network is really an advertising company. The problem is that “Liking” does not translate to “Buying” something.” Read more..

(Read that, and learn why I said, “Good for GM. Somebody’s getting smart, at least..”)

A world run by advertising… yippee yahoo. (And.. is that really the Facebook “fallacy”?)

Sometimes, I just have to scratch my head: A spammer left me an unsolicited Comment. Nothing new there.  What is new is they taught me all I need to know about the current tactics for search engine optimization (aka “SEO”). Which is great! Cuz you cannot run a business without SEO. That’s a fact. And some people go to school to learn this.

“Hello Web Admin, I noticed that your On-Page SEO is is missing a few factors, for one you do not use all three H tags in your post, also I notice that you are not using bold or italics properly in your SEO optimization. On-Page SEO means more now than ever since the new Google update: Panda. No longer are backlinks and simply pinging or sending out a RSS feed the key to getting Google PageRank or Alexa Rankings, You now NEED On-Page SEO. So what is good On-Page SEO?First your keyword must appear in the title.Then it must appear in the URL.You have to optimize your keyword and make sure that it has a nice keyword density of 3-5% in your article with relevant LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing). Then you should spread all H1,H2,H3 tags in your article.Your Keyword should appear in your first paragraph and in the last sentence of the page. You should have relevant usage of Bold and italics of your keyword.There should be one internal link to a page on your blog and you should have one image with an alt tag that has your keyword….wait there’s even more Now what if i told you there was a simple WordPress plugin that does all the On-Page SEO, and automatically for you? That’s right AUTOMATICALLY, just watch this 4minute video for more information at…”

What? You don’t think about “keyword density”??? Where you been?

Another coupl’a reco’s:

* Absolutely FREE – Quality, Innovative Online Computer Skills Training

“I was in the process of drafting a mini written tutorial on the usage of Microsoft Powerpoint for someone in my Church when I came across a really nice online training tutorial site that has a section totally devoted to computers skills.  It is called, GCFLearnFree.org (Goodwill Community Foundation). Under the computer skills category you […] ” Read more..

* Clotilda mentioned a website  (for those of you with children) in her article today..

“There is a website that we use a lot called brainpop.  It teaches facts about things like Math, Science Social Studies, and English.  It’s entertaining enough for the kids to actually watch without feeling tortured.”

~     ~     ~

Remember all the fear-speculation that there was going to be skyrocketing prices due to a hard drive shortage? Well, today I saw a 1 TB GoFlex external drive (USB 3.0) for $84…

( How to redeeem:
1. Start here at Dell direct store
2. Click “Add to Cart”
3. Apply coupon code LX7KP3R$KBXMDH for total $46 instant savings, proceed to final checkout. )

Today’s quote: “Good for the body is the work of the body, and good for the soul is the work of the soul, and good for either is the work of the other.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

… aw, heck. Let’s all try to have a good day today, shall we? Perhaps performing a “random act of kindness” is in order…….

Copyright 2007-2012 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

---

>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<

---

All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.

Topics Of Interest

Busy day here, but I found some good articles whose topics I hope you will find interesting, and the info provided, valuable. Some “recommended reading”, if you will.

• How The New ‘Protecting Children’ Bill Puts You At Risk

“A bill now makes the online activity of every American available to authorities upon request under the guise of protecting children from pornography..

“Protecting Children” forces ISPs to retain customer names, addresses, phone numbers, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and dynamic IP addresses..

It’s like having your wallet plus the web sites you visit tracked and handed over on request. These logs are now going to be retained for the scope of one and a half years. ” Read more..

(Those of you with a brain might wanna make a point of reading this one.. This is just plain wrong [IMHO]. The article contains a link for voicing your opposition.)

• 10 ways to safeguard your college-bound student’s computer

“You protect your corporate systems, but what about that back-to-school laptop you just bought your kid? Here are some things you can do to keep your student safe from cyber dangers.” Read more..

• Five reasons Android is superior to the iPhone

“While on vacation, I was reminded (yet again) how superior the Android platform is to the iPhone.” Read more..

• Creating Shortcuts to Google’s Gmail, Docs, Tasks, Calendar and Contacts

“I am a big Gmail user and have come to depend on Google’s Gmail and many of the other Google apps as an online personal information manager.” Read more..

• Three things Chromebooks need to fix to win buyers

“While Chromebooks have the potential to win corporate customers, I still think three things need to happen before Chromebooks will attract consumers and businesses in large numbers.” Read more..

• The 10 Best Apps Of July From The Daily App

“From Google+ for iPhone to Firefox for Android, here’s a glimpse at the best mobile apps we’ve featured in July on The Daily App blog.” Read more..

• 10 things you should still do to every Windows PC

“There are at least 10 things you should take a few minutes to do to every new Windows PC to get it ready for daily use. Don’t let your back-to-school PC drag your first semester down. “ Read more..

• 10 Cool Security Features In Mac OS X Lion

“No doubt, when it comes to security, Apple’s new Mac OS X Lion is shedding its spots and is ready to roar. As the dust has settled on the release of Apple’s Mac OS X Lion, unveiled July 20, experts have started asking, “Yes, but is it secure?” ” Read more..

And for the super-Geeky.. (Here at T4E Headquarters, “geek” is a compliment.)

• i-NVMM: Securing non-volatile memory on the fly

“Computer memory is a treasure of unencrypted information. Fortunately, power off and it disappears. That’s not the case with next-generation memory.” Read more..

• 10 Biggest Cyber Attacks Of July

“The lazy days of summer were anything but for hackers this month. If anything, hackers were ramping up their efforts under increased pressure from international and domestic law enforcement agencies.” Read more..

(Hmmm.. maybe you all should look at this one also..)

Today’s quote: “I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.”  ~ Abraham Lincoln

Have a great day, everybody. And what do you say, let’s do the right thing.

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

---

>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<

---

More Good News For California – Amazon Drops Us

“To call it an ignorant and short-sighted move is an understatement so massive, it’s frightening.“

For you thinkers out there, a ‘must read’: Amazon Drops California In Growing E-Commerce Affiliate Tax Law War

“In the ongoing state-by-state battle over tax collection on affiliate website sales, this afternoon Amazon warned thousands of affiliates their revenue streams would be shut off if a tax bill would be signed into law. Mere hours later, Governor Jerry Brown signed ABx1 28 into law, signifying tough times ahead for many online business owners.” Read more..

This is just a symptom folks, the disease (bankruptcy) is much scarier. Please read the whole article.. and have your thinking caps on..

Today’s free download: If you are hooked on both your Outlook and Twitter accounts, you can use the two together to become more efficient with you communications. There is an TwInbox add-on for Outlook that allows you to send and receive messages, update your Twitter status, receive friend updates, check messages, assign categories to messages, shorten URLs with TinyURL and archive/search your messages.

Today’s quote: “Success will never be a big step in the future, success is a small step taken just now.”  ~ Jonatan Mårtensson

Making the world a better place department: If you believe all those speed limit signs are set just way too fast, and you are going to go a nice, safe, 10 miles per hour under what they say.. Or perhaps you retired and so every day is a Sunday to you (perpetual Sunday Driver).. Don’t ever drive again. You are causing accidents, I guaranty. (Show this to the guilty you know.)

How ’bout some fun – it’s Summertime:

Also: For those of you who remember me talking about Genie Timeline (backup software), you may want to be aware they are having a 4th of July sale.. 4th of July 2011 50% OFF everything.

Last day of June already…

Also #2: Expect more massively ignorant and short-sighted moves. It’s SOP/”Situation: Normal” on planet earth. (More so in CA.)

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

---

>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<

---