Running Late? – Share Your Where with Glympse
August 3, 2009
A free service for cellphones, called Glympse, lets you share your location in small increments of time. By fall, it will be available for most phones.
This software from Android Market shows where you are on a map and will allow you to share your location by sending a Glympse to a person or people. It’s available for blocks of time up to four hours. Selecting four hours means recipients can track you for that period, no matter where you go, including the speed of the car. You can share your location with a business partner, client or your family.
Glympses can also include a short message.
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Did Microsoft Soften Yahoo’s Heart?
July 31, 2009
This is what I wrote in March 2008:
“I have been following Mr. Microsoft’s chase after Ms. Yahoo and have to announce today – this “soap opera” did not have a happy ending, or maybe it was Mission Impossible after all….
Mr. Microsoft did not win Ms.Yahoo’s heart. He tried, adding more bells and whistles to his marriage proposal, but Ms. Yahoo said NO and is still waiting for a Prince On A White Horse to come and rescue her from the Land of Uncertainty. Ms. Yahoo has been winking at Mr. Google who is way more skilled than her at search and online advertising…but their relationship is still in the early stages, and the two of them have not found solid common ground yet…..
Something tells me that this story will have a sequel as Mr. Microsoft is restless, desperately trying to find a partner who would balance his shortcomings in web advertising and search. He was hoping to create a harmonious island (cloud) with Ms. Yahoo, but did not find the right key to her heart.”
Times have changed.
Microsoft and Yahoo have a deal.
Is this a marriage of convenience? Will Yahoo stay at home and stay out of the search/advertising game?
Collaboration is Key in Virtual Communications
March 27, 2009
I am always looking for good web-based collaboration tools as I constantly need to collaborate virtually. That’s how I found Onehub, this tool is not simply for collaboration, it can be used as an FTP replacement. With a free account you can only set up one hub, where you basically can upload 1 GB of files. Your hub can include calendars as well in addition to discussion boards, task lists, images, RSS feeds and video.
Paid accounts are available too – from $19 per month up to $249 per month. Details are available on the Onehub website.
Central Desktop is a great collaboration and project management platform. It has too much power for a solopreneur, but is great for teams and workgroups to share information and communicate with other members. Paid accounts start from $25 per month.
Should You Buy a Laptop or a Netbook for Your Small Business?
December 27, 2008
Netbooks (mini laptops) usually aren’t as capable, but are smaller and cheaper than a PC. The small netbooks are lightweight, less expensive than a PC, and can easily fit into a handbag or a briefcase. More than 11 million consumers bought one for as little as $269 in 2008, and prices may continue to fall. PC makers say notebook computer prices could be affected by the trend, possibly with a 20 percent drop from early 2008 prices by the end of 2009.
The $269 netbook is made by Asus ‘Eee PCs (Eee stands for “Easy to learn, Easy to work, Easy to play.”). They are designed for basic tasks of Web surfing, email and word processing. They can do Wi-Fi but have a limited storage drive capacity. To keep costs down, some Asus models ship with the Linux operating system rather than Microsoft Windows.
The keyboards are small, which could be a problem for some people, but the size is perfect for children and high school students.
Dell’s $349 – $399 Inspiron Mini 9 has an 8.9-inch LED screen. It has 512 MB of system memory and Intel’s Atom 1.6-Ghz processor.
You can order it with Windows XP operating system instead of Linux. Dell has three netbooks, all of which have USB ports, other features and four hours of battery life, depending on the applications being used.
The $309 Acer Aspire One has a bright 8.9-inch screen, a 120-gigabyte hard disk and one gigabyte of memory. It’s about an inch thick. The keys are large and separated in order to make typing comfortable for limited work.
For $50 extra, you can double your battery power.
Powered By Dell Laptop Perfect For Small Business
November 13, 2008
I have owned several laptops – COMPAQ, HPs and couple of TOSHIBAs. Although I have always admired Michael Dell’s entrepreneurial spirit, I considered Dell to be a brand for Cubicle Nation, corporate offices and call centers. So when I received an email with a message that I have won a DELL laptop, I did not know what to think.
A couple of weeks later I received my Dell Latitude™ E6400 Laptop Computer signed by Michael Dell.
Here are the full details of the configuration:
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo P8600 (2.4GHz) processor,
Windows Vista® Business,
14.1″ WXGA+ LED Backlit display,
Integrated webcam,
120GB1 7200rpm HDD with Free Fall Sensor (actually upgraded to a 160GB1 7200 RPM HDD)
Nvidia 265MB Dedicated Graphics2,
Intel 5100 a/g/n wireless,
Backlit keyboard,
Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth®
I have grown to really like my new system. The battery lasts about 11 hours without recharging for me on days when I primarily write and do email, this is way more than I have experienced before. I have never had a laptop with a backlit keyboard, but now I am spoiled and would never consider one without. My Dell definitely increases my productivity. Since I travel quite a bit, I prefer sturdy systems rather than thin, fragile computers – the Dell is just the right size and weight. The keyboard is nice and the webcam is a great bonus feature.
I would recommend this well performing system to any small business owner.
Obama Turned Out To Be the Best Marketer
November 8, 2008
Here’s what I wrote in my blog post ‘Who would make the best small business marketer – Clinton, McCain or Obama?‘ in May:
“Senator Obama has the biggest potential to be a web savvy small business marketer. I can see him being successful at creating and delivering marketing messages to/for professional services firms. He is a very good speaker who does not get into too much detail (tactics), but understands his audience and can win over younger decision makers.”
As it turns out he did win over millions of young people by utilizing new technologies and creating vibrant online and offline communities.
Ten Simple Rules to Help Build Inbound Links for Your Small Business Website
November 7, 2008
One of our small business customers wanted to know more about creating relevant inbound links. Here’s what I suggested after researching this topic:
1. Choose 4-10 of your most popular keywords that you’re going to use.
2. Write variations of the links that you’d like to use. Test them. You may want to experiment with the Google AdWords keyword tool.
3. Create several inbound links using different variations of linking text.
4. The easiest way to get inbound links is from other websites or blogs that you own or control.
5. Create online profiles for your small business on social networking sites
6. Ask friends and colleagues for permission to put links on their sites or blogs.
7. Buy quality directory links. Don’t buy directory links disapproved by Google. Do your research – at least Google the site’s url or name before you buy.
8. Tell people how you’d like them to link to you. Ask them to copy and paste the code you provide into their web pages/blogs.
9. Write keyword rich press releases and use services such as PRWeb or PR.com to distribute them. For an additional fee PRWeb will let you embed links into the body of your press release.
10. Write and publish quality articles and blog posts. If people like your article, they will likely use your article’s title when they link to you, so make sure that you include keywords in the titles of each article/post.
Could You Enhance Your Small Business Marketing Efforts With Photosynth?
November 5, 2008
Photosynth is a service that turns multiple photos of a scene or site, like a building or gallery, into a 3-D scene you can virtually walk through on the Web.
Photosynth allows anyone to create a “synth” using a digital camera or using pictures they already have. Just figure out which ones overlap. Even pictures taken by different people with different cameras can be used. The software analyzes the pictures, figures which ones overlap in what order, and creates a 3-D synth.
The service is free and entirely web – based at photosynth.net. You can view your own synths and all the synths created by other users.
It works with Microsoft Windows. Photosynth installs two programs on your computer: a Web browser plug-in for viewing synths, and an application (called “Photosynth”) for creating them.
It takes some skill to get a set of photos the service can match up well, which Microsoft calls being “synthy.” Ideally, portions of each slice of a 3-D scene should show up in at least three photos with a 50 percent overlap between them.
After you upload your pictures, the service does its best with each set to create the scene. It then tells you how synthy the resulting 3-D is.
Should Small Business Owners Call or Email Their Customers and Prospects?
October 23, 2008
Getting through the maze of choices on a big company’s phone system can be aggravating. Sometimes you keep going in circles without an opportunity to speak to a human being.
Small business people can have a problem handling phones during busy business hours, too. But, for small business owners, the initial telephone contact can be crucial to making a sale.
Customers and prospects usually don’t call to chat. They want information and they want it now. They want to speak with someone who can help them. If the person who “just answers the phone” is the lowest-paid, least knowledgeable person in the building, customers can get frustrated.
One idea for small businesses: Put your best people on the phone and if necessary, share the duty. If that is impossible, then the receptionist should know the company terrain and staff and should not seem rushed or upset on the phone.
I often find it to be more effient to communicate with customers via email. Will email and Twitter replace phone calls in the future? Is Microblogging the future of communications?
Working Anywhere and Everywhere
October 21, 2008
Digital nomad is not a title or a profession. It represents the mindset and lifestyle of people who have chosen or allowed to break free from a cubicle and make their living working anywhere and everywhere. New technologies enable us to do so. One of my recurring nightmares now and then is a dream where I find myself working in a gray cubicle covered
with yellow sticky notes, eight pairs of eyes looking at me all at once. This dream motivates me to get back on my laptop and learn new software in addition to developing multitude of other new skills. Wikipedia states that “traditional nomadic behavior is increasingly rare in industrialized countries.” Times are changing partially driven by corporate economies
of scale and societal circumstances. I see this trend from cubicle to home based work expand in the future across national economies both in developed and emerging markets.
Read more about Digital Nomads on digitalnomads.com.
