We come to the walkin periodically and I figured it wouldn’t be very busy since we got here at 10:30am. I know coming in after school is really busy. But alas, it doesn’t matter during the flu season. I’m an idiot.

Thankfully I had charged my phone so I’m using the wordpress android app to blog this from the waiting room. But I wish I had my notebook to write out newsletters. I don’t have all my sites loaded in this app yet and I can’t remember other passwords.  I’ve been meaning to get them all loaded but I obviously needed something like this to make it more of a priority.

I always carry my notebook and pen with me when I’m going to be waiting anywhere. It’s sped up my wait time everywhere because I’m prepared for the wait. Of course, the time I don’t bring it will be the longest wait in years.  My bad.

I was eating small light meals today and that’s going to kick my butt. A little bowl of cheerios 3 hours ago is just not cutting it. Lol

I will definitely remember to bring my notebook everywhere I go now. I will also remember to put protein bar in my purse that I can eat. The one in my purse has whey so I can’t eat it. But daughter could if she was hungry. I swear now that they’ve gotten older I need a diaperbag size purse again. I have to pack so much stuff for sports and appointments.  Then there is all the stuff I need so I can be productive while I’m waiting around.

Now I think I’ll go search out more apps since I don’t sit and research all that this phone can do for me.  Have to be productive somehow!

I searched around to many scheduling programs for twitter and for one I was amazed at how many have a monthly cost. Definitely not what we were looking for. But others were just very cumbersome to use.

Hootsuite was recommended so I created a free account. I use twhirl for my twitter accounts as I like having the little box pop up for quick posting from multiple accounts and not have to open a new browser tab. But scheduling is something not available in twhirl unfortunately. Hootsuite was very easy to set up and I was posting in no time. Setting up my facebook fanpages took a little bit of figuring out, but I had 4 fanpages added within 15-20 minutes and that was mostly because of waiting while everything got permission to connect.

I hit my client up and asked her to check out hootsuite. She liked it too and set up an account. At first I was going through her main account, but now I have been added as a user to her business twitter and fanpage. I LOVE THAT! I log into my hootsuite account now and can update hers then quickly toss some to mine or vice-versa.

I can go in one day a week or a couple of times a month and schedule things for her. This works great and also forces her to work ahead. Great options for both of us. Plus the time saved logging into accounts can be better spent on other projects for her.

I’m giving hootsuite an A+ for usability and for holding options I don’t even know how to use yet. lol

Well unless you completely ignore everything I write, you know I absolutely love wordpress. I converted the last of my websites to WP about 2 years ago and it is all I personally work in now. The majority of my clients also use it or their first project for me is typically converting to wordpress. As with any medium it’s impossible for me to know everything. So I’m really looking forward to the Hot Seminar Series this year. It’s all about wordpress!

Just a few of the topics to be covered in this weekly series are choosing themes, security, branding, plugins and so much more.

This is a 9 week seminar filled with information.  The Hot Seminar Series has grown each year because of the incredible experts brought to the table.  This is not a pay as you go or an expensive series.  9 weeks of priceless information, with downloadable mp3′s to listen to as often as necessary and also video to watch later.  This way if you can’t make the wednesday night session’s you won’t miss out on the content!

Go get your subscription to the Hot Seminar Series and commit to learning and growing your business this summer.

PayPal offers an all-in-one solution so you can accept payments online, with or without a website and accept payments offline. If you already have a merchant account then you can utilize one of two options including Payflow Gateway, which offers a secure connection from your online store to your internet merchant account or PayPal Express Checkout, which creates a 3-click customer checkout. Most options require a $30/month fee and like any merchant account, you’ll pay a percentage of each sale ranging from 1.9% to 2.9% depending on your chosen package.

A big benefit of Paypal is that it’s available in 190 markets and 19 currencies around the world. It’s also known throughout the world as a leading payment gateway.

Alert Pay is a growing payment provider with members in more than 190 countries and supports 21 currencies. All monies deposited with AlertPay are FDIC and CDIC insured. While Alert Pay doesn’t offer the myriad account options PayPal does, it does offer low transaction fees of 2.5% + $0.25 per transaction, enables you to manage multiple online businesses with one account, use “Buy Now” buttons for one-time and recurring payments and it easily integrates into third-party applications. Additionally, they offer a number of business tools like sales reports and mass payment solutions.

CCNow offers payment systems geared toward your business size, including, Start-Up, Small Business, and Established. Their fees include a one time set up fee of 9.95 and a monthly fee of 9.95 if your sales are less than $100.01 each month. Additionally, you’ll pay a fee of 4.99% of Gross Sales plus $0.50 per transaction.

CCNow makes it possible to accept payments from common methods like Visa & MasterCard but also lets you accept payment via PayPal.

2Checkout.com easily integrates with other shopping cart systems, supports recurring billing and automatic payments. They also don’t charge any monthly fee however there is a $49 sign up fee, a 5.5% of Sale Amount and .45 per sale. They offer free code for your website, free shopping cart solutions and no fee to wire into a US or Canadian bank account. While they don’t support as many currencies as other vendors, they do support US, Australian, Canadian, Danish Kroner, Euro, GBP-Sterlings, Hong Kong Dollars, Japanese Yen, New Zealand Dollars, Norwegian Kroner, Swedish Kroner and Swiss Francs.

Other options include:
* e-gold which is an online payment system that exchanges currency in gold rather than dollars
* Authorize.net
* Securepaymentsystems.com
* RBSWorldpay
and many more.

When it comes to finding the right secure online payment system, there are many to choose from. Keep your budget, sales volume and the security of your clients and customers in mind before making your decision. Make sure they’re easy for you to use and integrate well with any system you currently have running. Also, look for how many tutorials they have and how easy they are to get ahold of in case a problem arises that you need to fix quickly.

My husband has the droid and absolutely loves it.  He hasn’t had a single problem with it.  He’s not a techy and found it very easy learn.  BUT, he’s also using it for different things than I will.  His is to check emails, especially to get his work emails, and browse the internet.

I know many that love blackberry’s and swear by them.  My aunt has had many over the years.

One major thing I wonder about is the keyboard.  I’m used to my full keyboard on my texting phone.  If I switch to a blackberry is that small thing going to tick me off constantly?

The other thing I was worried about was the smaller screen, but the new Palm Pre has a full screen and the slide out keyboard.  Still a small keyboard though.  So the droid has the full screen and the blackberry curve still has that small boxy screen.  Will I care?

But those are just cosmetic things really.  Yes, the keyboard is important to me, but I’m sure I can get used to anything except for a touchscreen only.  My major thing is what I will use it for.  I want the storage so I can write documents on it when I can’t get a signal (which hubby hasn’t had happen yet with his droid)  Honestly, it would be used mostly for emails on vacation or when we are out and about and I’m waiting for a family member, twitter because I’m an addict, and then blogging.  When I have a connection I’d love to be able to work on blog posts right in my wordpress admins instead of always having to use my paper notebooks.

Honestly, after reading this I guess I’m asking any of you blackberry users why I would want a blackberry instead of a droid?  Droid also works with google which I use every day.  It dawned on me that as long as I have a connection then I can use google documents and I only need storage for when I don’t have wifi or 3g coverage.  Which would come into play with either phone since it will be verizon no matter what phone I get.

Also, if anyone knows, I see that the blackberry curve just took a major dive in price.  So anyone know if something better is coming out?  I hate getting a new phone.  It never fails that they come out with something better a couple of weeks after I buy one.  lol

When it comes to computers, it can be difficult to keep your information safe from potential hackers and other dangers. That’s why it’s important to have a quality antivirus program. But, contrary to what many computer salesmen tell you, you don’t have to pay a lot to get a virus protection program that works. In fact, some of the better programs are free or require less than $20 for a 6-month license. If you just want to get a more expensive software program just in case, you can always run it and a free or inexpensive program as well.

In addition to protecting yourself against viruses, you also need to keep out other threats that virus checkers may or may not cover. There are several good spyware programs that are free and effective. A good rule of thumb is to look up the product and what it protects against. If you’re not already protected, it’s probably a good idea to buy or download the program.

I personally use the free version of AVG and have since 2008 on my laptop that is used daily and most of each day. It was recommended to me by many of my techy friends and I can’t beat free. Norton and I had issues with upgrades messing up browsers and not letting me online for days at a time. So I always recommend using free trials before paying for a service and definitely ask around for what others using similar software programs and same browsers use.

In addition to keeping information safe while it’s on your computer, it’s also important to keep it safe while sending it. If you’re sending confidential information or requesting it from someone, always be sure to use a safe, proven encryption program to protect the data from getting into the wrong hands.

Hackers aren’t the only danger to your electronic files, however. While it may be less devastating than having the information stolen, losing it to a computer failure or natural disaster can be very harmful as well. Be sure to back up your information and keep it somewhere safe. Just remember if you protect by keeping information on a separate drive or CD, etc, it could still be destroyed in a fire or flood if it’s in the same place as your computer.

While you hear a lot about people losing important information and documents from their computer, paper documents can still be lost or stolen just as easily. It’s just as important to protect these as it is your computer. To protect against thieves, you can get a safe or other locked storage device. What you get depends on what information you have and what you are able to spend.

While a safe may be great for keeping your documents out of the hands of other people, it may or may not be secure in case of fire, flood, or other disasters. That’s why it’s important to get a safe that is, or find another way to protect documents. There are containers that can do this for you that are relatively inexpensive, or you can back up the information securely online.

Remember that no matter what you do, there is no 100% sure way to keep private information private, but you can take major steps to protect it.

It’s simply a digital recording available for download on the internet.

Who can benefit from a podcast?

Just about anyone who has a website or online business can benefit. The podcast can be an extension of your website and you can record information each week about your topic and even add expert interviews.

A podcast is a nice addition to your online business which can be quite interactive if you invite listeners to contribute and leave their comments. A podcast can also be a mode of fresh, updated content – which the search engines love – for your website.

You can do this by having the audio podcasts transcribed and adding the text to the pages of your website. It’s a great way of repurposing your content.

What equipment do I need to get started?

Getting started with a podcast is fairly straightforward. You need a microphone which you can find on Amazon.com or at your local computer store. You also need some sort of digital recording equipment. This is as easy as using a service like Audacity or Audio Acrobat.

This equipment is easy to use and allows you to record your podcast. To interview guests for your podcasts, the easiest service to use is Skype.com. It’s free to use and allows you to record interviews with one or more people.

To edit your podcast, you can use the tools on your digital recording software. It’s not very difficult to do and you can remove certain parts of the podcast or play around with it a little until you’re happy with the end result.

How long should a podcast be?

There isn’t really an industry average but the length will depend on whether you’re interviewing someone, have a group of hosts or are simply doing a simple one-person style podcast where you do all the talking.

The length should also be dependent on your topic or market. If you’re offering a how-to podcast it needs to be as long as it needs to be for you to show people how to do something.

Use your common sense as to how long it will be, but do realize that people’s attention span online is quite brief. It’s not easy for most to sit through a long podcast unless they are extremely interested in the topic. Keep things interesting and lively, and be succinct.

How do I find people to interview?

Once you start your podcast you’ll be surprised at how many people are open to interviews. When you interview someone they’re gaining publicity for their business too – so it’s a win/win situation for all involved.

To find people, include a section on your website which lets people know that you’re looking for experts to interview. Or simply contact people you’d like to interview directly. As the saying goes – you never know until you ask.

Podcasting is a great addition to any website. It can be a means of attracting a following of loyal visitors who can then become potential customers/clients. You can also use it as a mode of additional content for your website, which will benefit your search engine status.

Moving lists actually helps weed out some of those that aren’t reading your emails anyway. Having a big list doesn’t mean a thing if they aren’t opening it or clicking links from it. So look at those conversions as well.

Don’t have those conversion rates? Well then you are seriously losing out on your lists. The ONLY program I recommend is Aweber. Yes, they aren’t cheap anymore, but if you are building your lists correctly then you should be making enough money from those lists to pay for it and more.

Remember that I am here to help you work more efficiently, not the cheapest way possible or the way to start off your biz for free. I want you to utilize your time well. But starting off at only $19 with a 30 day money back guarantee is very affordable.