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Flex-time approved for county
An enthusiastic Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved flex-time and telecommuting pol

Read more on The San Luis Obispo Tribune

Free Reverse Cell Phone Lookup Sites: How To Avoid Scams And Find A Person By Their Mobile Number
Although mobile phones have helped greatly in knowing who is calling you, there has been a rise in the number of “Unknown Caller” calls being made to mobile phones.

Read more on OfficialWire

Originally posted 2010-04-22 23:37:19.

Basic Web design is easy to learn and you will always get the best results using real code. WYSIWYG “wizard” software that promises to do all the work for you typically causes more problems than it solves.

There are numerous software applications that allow you to drag, drop, point, and click your way to a Web template without ever typing the first line of code. These tools are often called WYSIWYG, meaning What You See Is What You Get. Most such devices are junk and should be avoided at all cost.

Due to the heavily promoted simplicity of WYSIWYG tools, many people use them for their basic Web design needs. But the bottom line is these tools limit your flexibility, create sloppy code, and in many cases simply do not work the way you want them to.

Learning the basics of Web design is easier than you might think. And in the long run you’ll save time and money, plus end up with a much better site, when you create your own code in lieu of using a WYSIWYG.

Let’s look more closely at the primary drawbacks of this type of software.

Limited Flexibility

No matter how slick, expensive, and high-tech a WYSIWYG editor, it’s not as robust and expansive as the human mind. There’s simply no way one of these utilities can be programmed for every possible parameter.

And frankly in most cases point and click Website builders are seriously flawed in terms of what they allow you to do.

As long as you stick with the basics of putting a table here, dropping an image there, and so forth you’ll be fine. But when you decide you want to align a block of text outside and to the right of an existing table, suddenly the software stops responding and you are unable to make the seemingly simple change you want.

WYSIWYG software is not intuitive in many scenarios. And there are a variety of design tactics and format changes you simply cannot do without going directly into the raw code.

Sloppy Code

Neat, properly formatted HTML (and other code) is critical for the success of your site. And it’s totally impossible to duplicate this level of quality when using a WYSIWYG.

When your HTML code is entered incorrectly your site obviously will not display properly. WYSIWYG software generally enters the basic structure correctly, but numerous small errors appear throughout a document created with these tools, and this will cause your pages to look different from one browser to another.

Also, the structure of your code is an important part of onsite search engine optimization. The kind of jumbled slop produced by a WYSIWYG tool can actually harm your search engine rankings, whereas proper hand coding can greatly enhance your position within the results listings.

Just Won’t do What You Want

Even at the level of basic Web design there are times when the developer wants to do something a little outside of the ordinary. And few things are more frustrating in a Website development scenario than wanting to create a specific effect and not being able to do so.

When using WYSIWYG technology you will often discover there is simply no way to create the format or effect you’d like to see on the screen in front of you. The “wizard” must adhere strictly to the rules it was programmed with, and even if the change you want to make is very minor, it just isn’t possible if the WYSIWYG doesn’t understand how to do it.

On the other hand, once you have even a preliminary grasp of basic Web design code, you’ll be able to make any changes you like in a matter of seconds. There are very few limitations when handling raw code, whereas a WYSIWYG will allow you to perform only a pre-determined range of commands.

With the right educational material, the average Internet user can become proficient in the art of basic Web design in 30 days or less. With only a small amount of practice you’ll be cranking out Web pages that are ten times better than those produced by the most expensive WYSIWYG on the market.

Originally posted 2009-11-16 19:11:07.

According to a new survey by Equifax, Inc.,commercial bankruptcies among the nation’s more than 25 million small businesses increased by nearly 81 percent in June 2009 from June 2008.

More than 1,000 emergency loans have been granted to small businesses in the United states after the Small Business Administration (SBA) launched the America’s Recovery Capital (ARC) small business loan program last June.

ARC’s goal is to grant 10,000 loans by the time it ends in late 2010. Be;ieve it or not, there are 8,200 FDIC-backed banks in the U.S., but many are slow to participate in this program nationwide, with only 400 lenders currently making ARC loans. Banks thus far that are doing these loans include Wells Fargo, PNC Financial and Zions Bank.

Of all the states participating, it appears as if Minnesota and Wisconsin have generated 28 percent of the ARC loans to date, while Alabama, Oregon and South Carolina, have fewer than five lenders offering the loans.

Interest-free ARC loans are insured, and will grant business owners up to $35,000 to small business owners if they get approved. The SBA is paying banks two percentage points over the prime.

Forecasting a 56 percent default rate, the SBA knows that small businesses are in jeoprody, and it takes awhile for the applications to be processed.

Another alternative to going out of business or bankrupt, is the age old concept of invoice factoring for small businesses. Factoring services allow small businesses to capitalize on significant growth opportunities over a short period of time; often tripling their workforce and increasing revenue 10-fold.

Single invoice factoring (a.k.a. invoice discounting) this is a unique finance tool that is simpler and superior to standard invoice factoring services, as well as factoring funding provided by traditional old line factors, accounts receivable financing, receivable funding and assets based lending approaches.

By selling credit-worthy invoices to a factor, businesses acquire additional funding for immediate working capital.

According to a new survey, U.S. small-business owners say the recession is pushing them to be more efficient, innovative, and cultivate stronger teams. Those companies with 500 or fewer workers and are a key portion of the country’s commerce food chain. They account for more than 99 percent of all employer firms, according to federal statistics, pay nearly 45 percent of the country’s private payroll and produce almost a third of the nation’s export value.

What’s more, 66 percent of small businesses are finding new ways to operate more efficiently during the economic downturn.

Many of these small businesses have found invoice factoring as one of most innovative solutions to be efficient during a bad economy.

38 percent of small business owners expect the economy to improve over the next 12 months. Only 23 percent of them believed it would improve last January of 2009.

Fort Lauderdale Real Estate Buyer Guide: The Loan Application
The loan application process is not shrouded in mystery. You apply for the loan and your lender will decide whether you are qualified for it; simple as that. However, there is much to it than meets the eye, so to speak.

Read more on Turks.US

Avoid job scams
Question 1. I recently filled out a job application. I wrote in my work e-mail address as a way to contact me. Should I have written another e-mail address? — Kile

Read more on CNN Money

Originally posted 2009-10-17 12:03:10.

In a time when banks and credit unions are denying loan applications like never before, many entrepreneurs and business owners are turning to business grants as a dependable source of financial help.

Business grants are monetary aids that are specifically designed to help individuals start a new business or expand an existing one. However, just like scholarships and other financial aid opportunities – there are tons of scams to beware of.

Here are the top 5 signs of a business grant scam:

1) No Phone Number Listed
If you are on the web site of an organization or government agency that is offering a business grant opportunity, make sure that there is a working phone number listed. If not, it’s probably not a legit opportunity. In addition, there should also be a working email address listed as well. If you get the impression that they don’t want you to get in touch with them, that should sound off an alert.

2) PO Box Address
If the postal address associated with the business grant is a PO Box, this may be a sign of a scam. Be sure to investigate though because some organizations have physical addresses, but want all applications and correspondence to go to a mail box. Use your discernment on this one.

3) Fee Required
If a company or organization is asking for your credit card number or requiring you to send a payment with your application, this will almost always be a scam.

Remember though that is very normal for some companies to charge a fee for you to access their grant database. Others will charge a fee to send you a CD-Rom or e-book. This is okay.

What is not okay, is you having to pay to apply for an individual business grant opportunity – especially if they insist on you sending a money order, a payment that can not be reversed or refunded.

4) Poor Web Site Design
If you visit a web site promoting a grant opportunity, and the design looks poor and elementary – it’s likely a scam. Organizations and government agencies that give grants away have professional-looking and well-developed web sites. Don’t scrutinize it too hard, but just be weary of sites that portray low-quality.

5) Sounds Too Good To Be True
If an organization is making far-fetched statements about a grant opportunity, it’s more than likely not legit. For instance, some grant opportunities may say “Apply for our $1 million dollar grant for your business” or “No application is ever denied”. These are claims that indicate a bogus opportunity because such statements are not very realistic.

Each of the major search engines Google, Yahoo and MSN have quality webmaster guidelines in place to prevent the unfair manipulation of search engine rankings by unscrupulous website owners. These webmaster guidelines change frequently to ‘weed’ out any new deceptive practices and those websites found engaging in these illicit practices are consequently dropped from the search engine rankings of the major search engine they have offended.

Being banned or dropped from the search engine rankings can have dire effects on your website traffic, online sales generation and site popularity. Especially if your website is classified as a ‘bad neighborhood’ site, you can then kiss your reciprocal linking campaign goodbye, as existing and prospective link partners will not want to be associated with your site for fear of their own rankings dropping.

If you wish to avoid alienating the major search engines then do not engage in the following SE tactics:-

1. ‘Cloaking’ or sneaky redirects – displaying different content to the search engines than shown to your normal website visitors including hidden text and hidden links. Often this is achieved by delivering content based on the IP address of the user requesting the page, when a user is identified as a search engine spider a side-server script delivers a different version of the web page to deceive the search engine into giving the website a higher ranking.

2. ‘Doorway’ pages created specifically for the search engines that are aimed at spamming the index of a search engine by inserting results for specific keyword phrases to send the search engine spider to a different page. With doorway pages a user doesn’t arrive at the page they were looking for. Similarly avoid ‘cookie cutter’ approaches that direct users to affiliate advertising with little or no original content.

3. Don’t create pages that install viruses, Trojans or badware. ‘Badware’ is spyware, malware or deceptive adware that tracks a user’s movements on the internet and reports this information back to unscrupulous marketing groups who then bombard the user with targeted advertising. This type of spyware is often unknowingly downloaded when playing online games or is attached to software or information downloads from a site. They are often difficult to identify and remove from a user’s PC and can affect the PC’s functionality.

4. Avoid using software that sends automatic programming queries to the search engines to submit pages or check rankings such as ‘Webposition Gold’. This type of software consumes valuable computing resources of the search engines and you will be penalized for using it.

5. Don’t load web pages with irrelevant words.

6. Don’t link to ‘bad neighborhood’ sites who have:-

• Free for all links pages

• Link farms – automated linking schemes with lots of unrelated links

• Known web spammers or the site has been dropped or banned by the search engines.

7. Avoid ‘broken links’ or ‘404 errors’, your site will be penalized for them.

8. Don’t display pages with minimal content that is of little value to your site visitors.

9. Do not duplicate content unnecessarily.

10. Do not use pop-ups, pop-unders or exit consoles.

11. Do not use pages that rely significantly on links to content created for another website.

12. Do not use ‘cross linking’ to artificially inflate a site’s popularity. For example, the owner of multiple sites cross linking all of his sites together, if all sites are hosted on the same servers the search engines will pick this up and the sites will be penalized.

13. Do not misuse a competitors name or brand names in site content.

14. Sites with numerous, unnecessary virtual host names will be penalized.

15. Do not use techniques that artificially increase the number of links to your web pages ie. Link farms.

16. Display web pages with deceptive, fraudulent content or pages that provide users with irrelevant page content.

17. Using content, domain titles, meta tags and descriptions that violate any laws, regulations, infringe on copyrights & trademarks, trade secrets or intellectual property rights of an individual or entity. Specifically in terms of publicity, privacy, product design, torts, breach of contract, injury, damage, consumer fraud, false, misleading, slanderous or threatening content.

For more information on search engine guidelines see my SEO ebook the ‘Insider Secrets of Rank 1 Websites’ by Rosemary Donald for just $29.95 AU. Rank1 Website Marketing, promoting positive SEO tactics on the Internet.

© Rosemary Donald, Rank1 Website Marketing 25th September, 2007

www.rank1websitemarketing.com

Everybody makes mistakes and entrepreneurs are no exception. But for an entrepreneur with a limited budget, committing mistakes too often can be very costly. It is an open secret in the business world that most of the mistakes that can be committed in business have been committed; so why not just learn from them, saving you the agony of committing them yourself.

With that said, here are 7 costly small business marketing mistakes every entrepreneur must avoid:

1. An Incongruent Marketing Message

To effectively sell your product or service, your customer has to “get” the marketing message. A customer-centric marketing message educates your prospects and persuades them to become customers. Too many small businesses make the mistake of focusing their message on the product or company, instead of how the prospect would benefit by purchasing their product. Prepare the right marketing message with some of these in mind:

• Identify the prospect’s problem.

• Explain to the prospect why the problem should be solved immediately and explain why your product or service is the right solution to their problems.

• List the benefits your prospects would enjoy upon purchasing your product and provide an unconditional guarantee to allay any fears they may have.

2. “Spray-and-Pray” Marketing Instead Of Precision Marketing

The days of marketing as a zero-sum game are over. You must demand accountability from your marketing efforts, expecting tangible results in the form of a healthy ROI (return on investment). Differentiate your marketing messages and target them to meet the specific needs and wants of your prospects and customers.

Many small businesses are guilty of the dreaded “spray-and-pray” marketing ideology, which inevitably drains their resources to the point where it very often leads to their demise.

Do not commit this same mistake, but instead practice precision marketing, where every aspect of your marketing and advertising efforts are measured and tracked for maximum returns.

3. Failing To Realize Marketing Is About Value Creation

To create a sustainable small business, you have to market something of value to the prospect and customer. Marketing is your business and creating value for your customers should permeate through all your marketing efforts. Strive to always over-deliver because customers love to receive more than they expect and the easiest way to do so is to develop a thorough understanding of their wants and desires.

4. Selling Instead Of Educating

You must have heard about the age-old principle that “people love to buy but hate being sold to.” It is a principle that will continue to hold true for ages to come, but unfortunately, many small businesses still fail to adhere to it. The fastest way to get rid of a prospect is to try forcing a sale out of him or her.

Education-based marketing, however, is a powerful marketing strategy to overcome this problem of being sold to. This strategy makes use of giving away valuable information, educating your prospect about the benefits of owning your product or using your service, offered to them as free reports, video cassettes, CDs, or DVDs in exchange for their contact information.

It is a strategy that builds trust with the prospects resulting in a much higher closing ratio. So, forget about throwing a sales pitch and try educating your prospects instead for a higher conversion rate.

5. Failing To Test

The biggest mistake any entrepreneur can make with their business is the failure to test every possible variable most important to their customers. This applies to both online and offline marketing efforts.

I can understand if small businesses faced more difficulty with market testing because of limited budgets years ago, but the Internet has done away with this excuse. It has become so cheap to conduct price tests and sales copy tests and identify what campaigns, keywords, and metrics give you the best ROI online that not testing any of these has become a cardinal sin.

6. Not Following Up With Prospects Or Customers

Small businesses spend a great sum of money acquiring customers, which makes it all the more difficult to understand why many of them don’t follow up with their customers, or even their prospects after the “front end” sale.

It has been well documented that true riches are to be found in the backend sales and the reason for this is simple. If a customer or prospect raises his or her hand to do business with you, it means an element of trust has been established and a business relationship is ready to be formed. They are more then likely to buy from you repeatedly if you make it a point to capture their contact information and develop a follow-up system for communicating with them frequently.

7. Selling To The Wrong Target Market

Never assume that your product or service will appeal to a general audience because this assumption has profoundly resulted in many small businesses shutting up shop. Large businesses are guilty of this too, but you can save yourself from committing such a rash mistake by asking yourself these two questions:

• Who are your customers, or who is your target market?

• Who will use your service, or who will buy your product?

Answer these questions with absolutely clarity and segment these markets by demographics and psychographics to zero in on your ideal customer. The time spent doing this correctly will add nicely to your bottom line.

Just remember that to succeed, you must be prepared to fail, so don’t fear the eventual mistake but learn from it.

Having an up to date backup of important photos, files and other data from your computer at home or office is something everyone should have, how ever very few do. How Come? Well at first I thought it might be because no one knew how or that they should do it. How ever that wasn’t the case, the answer seems to be that most people just assume a data loss problem or PC failure won’t happen to them, that is until it’s to late.

In this article I am going to discuss computer backup storage and backup solutions. We’ll look at what media and method to use to store your backup as well as the software to create it.

Save your Money Fancy Features Don’t Make it Better

One of the biggest issues with buying anything technological is buying more features then are needed to get a job done. Why does this occur? Most of the time it’s because we start doing research about the different features available and then start dreaming about how great it would be if the software could do this or that. The reality is we almost never use those technical features, and they end up being as waste of money.

When selecting a form of computer backup storage keep this simple feature free idea in mind. Most times a USB drive (flash drive) or regular old DVD-R’s will get the job done. High tech alternatives such as tape backups and secondary hard drives will just complicate the issue.

Simple Software is the Answer for Easy Backups

Storing the backup you create is the first step, of course before you store it on a piece of media somewhere you need to first create the backup. An easy method of doing this is to just use the standard windows Zip format. This will compress everything, how ever it’s more difficult to keep all of your files up to date this way. Software can make this a lot easier on you and hands off.

Easy to use PC applications like Acronis True image make the backup process a lot easier then doing it manually. Programs like this are automatically integrated to store a backup on a USB drive or even transfer it off site via FTP. Using the backup software is as simple as selecting what files and folders you want backed up and the software takes care of the rest until you want to add new files or folders.

The key here is don’t get to weighted down in fancy features. All this does is slow you down and often you won’t complete your backup because of all the options.

Back it all Up Online

Another alternative for computer backup storage that is becoming very popular is online backup services. This combines the software to make the backup with the storage solution (off site online file storage). The price is right often less then five bucks a month, and the software is about as easy as you can get for making file backups.

If you take one thing away form this article the thing to remember is that you must take action. Not backing up your files today leaves one more day for something to crash and you lose all of your important photos, videos, music and more.

So take the first step today and investigate the best method of computer backup storage for you.

When starting up a business, you may be overwhelmed by all the things that need to be done to get you off on the right foot. From setting up your computer, protecting it, setting up a method to take (and give) payments, your website, learning accounting software (or getting an accountant), it can be a lot of work just to get things started right.

Once you got it all set u, you might be tempted to do the website, content, and everything else yourself. This is the worst possible thing you can do, as you can’t be an expert at everything. The key here is to stick to what you do best and get a small business computer consultant to do the rest.

What do I mean? If you’re expertise is in golf, you would want to be writing up content related to your specialty. What you shouldn’t be doing is trying to learn web design, programming, keyword research and the like.

This is where small business computer consulting firms can be of great benefit, as they will be able to objectively look at your business and help you design a plan to get your name out there.

Another key here to look at this as an investment instead of an expense as you are using the firm to help grow your business over time faster than you would be able to do by yourself.

A good small business consulting firm will be able to take your vision and translate it into actionable steps and milestones to be followed on a daily basis. From keyword research, to setting up the structure of your website, and even content creation, a consulting firm can save you time that would normally be spent trying to learn it all and getting frustrated as a result.

One key thing to remember in order to forge a long term relationship with your firm is that they are a consulting firm, not employees and as such deserve to be treated as equals and with respect.

Another key thing to be aware of is that the consulting firm in question are experts at what they do, and should be listened to very carefully as the suggestions they make are specifically designed to help grow your business.

Avoiding time wasters in business is not as hard as you might think, for as soon as you realize you cannot do everything yourself and hire a small business computer consulting firm, you will see your stress level reduce and your profits and exposure rapidly increase.