November 2008

So, you finally decided to upgrade your business with a website. This is an important step which can take your business to a new level.

1. A well built and properly advertised website can bring you many new customers who wouldn’t have heard about your business otherwise.

2. Most people search for services and products on the Internet via Google, Yahoo, Ask, etc. Net presence is important to earn new clients.

3. The website is your face when it comes to clients who arrive to you via the net. If your website is well built, even if you are a small business owner, clients will be more willing to work with you.

Now that we understand the importance of a good, reliable website for a business, let’s go over some basic steps to make sure your website will be a success story:

Determine your budget:

Building a Website can cost you next to nothing or cost you thousands of dollars. The best site is one in which the benefits outweigh the cost, so budget accordingly.

Some companies such as Weebly offer absolutely free Websites. Of course, there are advantages and disadvantages in such a Website. The biggest advantage is the zero cost. If your Website turns out useless, you don’t lose any money. The disadvantages of free Websites are usually the limited storage space ,which means you can’t build a large Website, and limited bandwidth (if many users enter your site at once, it might become slow or even unavailable).

If you have a large budget, you may go to a custom Web design firm. They will usually offer you two or three
unique design sketches which they embed in their Content Management System and a directions about how to enter your content into it. Data Rocket specializes in using Wordpress as a CMS.  One of the services we provide is basic Web design.  Give us a call or send us an email to find out how we can help you.

Design is naturally one of the most important aspects in Website success. Website design must represent your business as prosperous, impressive and trustworthy therefore there is no place to disregard it.

Quality content:

In order to be found in search engines and attract serious visitors you must fill your website with high quality content. We suggest you enter information about yourself, your business and products.
Professional articles and information from your field or industry might add more value to the website and present you as an expert in your field.

Keeping in touch:

Once you have earned clients you better keep in touch with them. There are number of fast and cost effective ways to do so:

1.Email. Unsolicited email is illegal, but once a customer signed up at your website and gave his agreement to receive your e-mails, you should keep in touch with him, informing him about new products,
services and sales.  This is called Permission Marketing.

2. Blogging. Keep in touch with your clients by blogs and forums where you can offer them technical support and high quality content.  This also builds equity in your brand.

3. Twitter.  Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that allows its users to send and read other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length. Updates are displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them.

4. SMS. If your business is very dynamic you might use the SMS technology to keep in touch with your clients at real time.

The World Wide Web is a fascinating place. It has obliterated geography
in terms of education and business. It facilitates learning by allowing
kids to see things and experiences aspects of different places they may
never get the chance to see in the non-virtual world. The Internet can
bring people together who otherwise would never know each other and
create a virtual universe that is totally cohesive, with every kind of
information imaginable literally available at your fingertips. Sounds
great, doesn’t it?

Unfortunately, the Internet has a dark side. It is full of material
that is inappropriate for children and all kinds of predators. Leaving
your kids alone to fend for themselves on the Web is exactly as
dangerous at leaving them in a crowed airport or shopping mall. You
don’t know where they’re going or who with. The news is
filled with horror stories about kids who have been taken advantage of
on the Internet, but you don’t want yours to miss out on all the
positive aspects of the technology. The first line of defense in
keeping your kids save on the Web is to teach them how to use it
safely.

A lot of online dangers can be dodged simply by reminding kids of
one of their earliest learned lessons: don’t talk to strangers.
The kinds of people who want to harm kids have all kinds of tricks up
their sleeves. They may try to lull your child into a false sense of
security by pretending to be someone she knows. Make sure your child
understands that it isn’t a good idea to give out personal
information such as their address, phone number or the name of their
school. The less information a potential predator has, the harder it
will be for him to actually locate a victim. It might be a good idea to
establish a secret password and share it only with friends and family
so your kid has a way to identify people who are safe to chat with.

Chat interfaces and instant messaging are great tools for keeping
in touch with friends and conduct business, but they are also direct
connections between your child and possible pedophiles and other
predators. Most instant messengers have settings that will only allow
people on a pre-approved list to approach your child. That way you can
let the kids chat with family and friends while keeping the bad guys
out.

One of the most important things you can do is to locate the computer your children are using in a common are such as the living room.  That way, they are not tempted to do things they may not otherwise. You can’t watch your kids every minute they are online, and you
can’t always count on them to do what you have taught them to do.
On Windows, parental control software such as Net Nanny and Cyber Patrol is a great back up. On OS X Leopard, there are built in parental controls. Most browsers will allow
you to customize age-appropriate settings for each child in your house.
You can choose what kinds of Web sites you want your kids to access and
block them out of the ones you don’t. It’s a great way to
provide a virtual safety net for your family. If the parental controls
supplied by your Internet Service Provider, check into installing
additional software that will evaluate each site your child attempts to
access. You set criteria by which the software judges each Web page and
assigns a rating, much like a movie rating. Your kids will only be able
to look at sites with ratings you have deemed appropriate.

Most homes in the world have computers nowadays; one or two at least.  I have 6 computers in my home, but I’m not the typical computer user.  Besides computers, most people also have digital cameras, camcorders, and MP3 players.

Think about all that is digital in our lives: music, photos, movies, e-mail and legal or financial documents. It is becoming increasingly important that we become aware of the data we have and how we can keep it safe. The question is, “How do you protect your digital assets without becoming a computer geek?”

Its very simple:

Step 1: You need to identify where your data is currently stored. You might have a few photos still on a digital camera, some files on the computer at work and more files and music on a home computer. Take inventory of everything electronic that’s important to you including bills, bank
statements, photos, music, etc.

Step 2: Choose a second location to store backups. The most likely place to store all of your digital files is your main computer. That also solves the first problem of being able to find it all quickly. Now, you have to make sure the information is safe from a disaster, which means storing it in two locations.   Or you can back up that data to another device, so if your computer gets a virus or crashes, you have second copy.

The easiest way to do a backup is by buying a portable hard drive.  Hard drives are getting cheaper and cheaper, like this Western Digital 320GB Portable Hard Drive for less than $100.  Simply plug it in to an available USB port and the drive will show up under “My Computer.”

Step 3: You know where your important data is and you have a place to copy it to. You could copy each file manually, or install backup software that does it automatically. If you’re on a Windows machine, SyncBack is a free program that automates this process.  For my fellow Mac users, I recommend SuperDuper ($27.95) or if you’re on Leopard, just use Time Machine.

Computers are easily replaced, but the data on them aren’t always replaceable. Backing up is the only way to assure that your digital memories are not lost forever.