Video – How To Show File Extensions

Below is a quick video on how to view file extensions in both Windows XP and Vista…

This is so stupid. Microsoft doesn’t believe you can handle all of that extraneous information, like what kind of file type you are dealing with.

Just follow the steps in the video above and for God’s sake don’t start a war with that secret information you obtain without Microsoft’s knowledge!.
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Microsoft Office vs Open Office Comparison

For years we have been recommending Microsoft Office Suite to our small business clients. Within the past year we have switched over to Open Office as a free office software suite that we recommend.

The video below shows how Microsoft Office and Open Office match up…

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Here is a summary of my recommendations:

For a home office – Open Office

For a small business (less than 5-10 employees) – Open Office with maybe one employee/computer having Microsoft Office.

For larger businesses that have collaboration between departments you might consider the collaboration and edit tracking features available through MS Office.

Caveats:

For heavy or interactive database use Microsoft Access is better than OpenOffice Base.

For heavy PowerPoint users Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 has a lot more bells and whistles than OpenOffice Impress.

Related Links:
OpenOffice.org
Microsoft Office (Amazon).
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Marketing vs. Advertising

I’m often asked “What’s the difference between marketing and advertising?”. To put it simply advertising is a piece of your marketing strategy.

Marketing starts with your prospective customer – who they are, where they are and what they want. What problems do they have that need a solution?

Marketing includes:

• Market research, including
  • Customer research
  • Competition research
• Sales strategy
  • Pricing
  • Sales copy – add audio? video?
  • Specials/discounts/coupons?
  • Bonuses?
  • Upsells
• Advertising
  • Branding – promote corporate name
  • Public/Media relations
  • General ads – TV, radio, banner ads
  • Targeted ads – search engine ads, mail list, other newsletters/ezines
  • Testing/tracking
• Product distribution – collecting the money and shipping the product
• Customer feedback/support

For example, you’ve started an online business, done the research, found keywords that relate to your prospective customers and set up a Google Adwords account. Now you write a 3 line ad that brings people to your sales page.

Advertising is just a small part of your overall marketing plan. The great thing about online advertising is that you can target your ads. When a car company pays $100,000 to run a single ad on TV, 97% of the viewers aren’t interested in buying a new car.

When someone types “new car prices” into a search engine the odds are MUCH greater that they are looking to actually buy a car and you can have an advertisement in front of them for under $1.

That’s why Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research says their latest forecast shows digital advertising almost doubling in the next 5 years (2009-2014).

Sign up as a Home Office Small Business Member and we’ll show you how to set up your marketing strategy..
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Email Marketing – How Many Get Through?

Every online business should have a mail list of prospects and customers they send regular emails to. But how many people who sign up for your mail list actually receive your message?

There are many list building techniques, but the object of a mail list is to build trust so that prospects will be more inclined to purchase your products.

However, a recent report from Return Path shows that deliverability of opt-in commercial (non-spam) emails and newsletters is running at about Read more.
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How Domains Work

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This is a sample video from our Members Area. It explains how domain names work, including nameservers (NS1/NS2), IP addresses, DNS servers and computer host files.

It starts with a Registrar where you buy the domain name. You then rent space on the Internet through a web host which gives you an IP address for your domain’s space and nameserver info to pass on to your Registrar when you are ready for your site to go live.

You use the IP address your web host gave you to preinstall your web site.

Once your site is up you change your nameserver information on your Registrar, then the various DNS servers come by the Registrar and update their info to direct visitors to the proper IP address for your site..
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How To Start An Online Business

What do you need to start a small or home-based business? Especially an online business? Some people know exactly what they want to do, others are searching for home-based business ideas.

Many just start by saying they want to make some money online. Well, there are plenty of jobs you can do at home through the Internet. What we’ll show you here is how to actually start an online business, or use the Internet to promote your established small business.

Here’s what you what you need to start an online business, or any small or home-based business for that matter. It starts with your  business goals. Read more.
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Small Business Health Savings Accounts

With all the hullabaloo over the new Obama health care proposals, there’s one health insurance solution for U.S. small business owners that is often overlooked – Health Savings Accounts.

Health Savings Accounts are a savings account, similar to an IRA, combined with a high deductible health plan. Passed by Congress in 2003 and in effect as of January 1, 2004, it allows both you and any employees signed up to be the decision makers in both health care and retirement planning.

There are two books I’ve read called Health Savings Accounts For Small Businesses and Individuals by Madison Groves and The New Health Insurance Solution by Paul Zane Pilzer that lay everything out, but here are the highlights… Read more.
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Time To Transfer Those Old Backup Files

I recently came across a blog by Adrian Wong of TechARP who was experiencing about a 10% error rate on old CD-R’s that had backed up data on them.

Some of these were brand name CD’s and some generic brands, but all were less than 10 years old and were stored in a cool, dry and dark area.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes of ZDNet didn’t experience the same data loss rate, but said it may be attributable to verifying the data at the time of backup. He also recommends Elprime Media Recovery ($19.95) for dead disks.

Whatever the case, with the decrease in cost of hard drives and even web space it only makes sense to take any backed up CD’s/DVD’s and transfer them to a new medium.

Read more.
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