professional geeks for hire

RSS or Really Simple Syndication is a process
that allows individuals to subscribe to content distribution. This is
not like subscribing to an email newsletter. You “subscribe” to the feed and the content is downloaded to your reader and viewable when you choose to listen, watch
or read the content. The content you subscribe is not limited to text.
For example, if you have a podcast you like to listen to, an RSS
reader can capture the podcast and download it for quick listening when
you’re ready.

Who uses RSS feeds?

People who are junkies for news, content, and information.  I use Google reader for RSS. I currently subscribe to 52 different RSS feeds.  In those different feeds are blogs and news websites, all in one place.  I don’t have to browse to all the different websites to see if there’s any updates or new stories.  It’s all updated in Google reader.  And for podcasts, I use iTunes.  iTunes has the most comprehensive podcast directory integrated right into the iTunes music store.

In the business world, many websites have very specific RSS feeds. For example, if you are a business newspaper, you may have a feed specific to regional news, national or international news, sports, and financial news.  In this fashion, a blog can deliver their content to a very specific niche.

The growth of RSS is incredible. You might even liken the service
to something like a newspaper being delivered to your reader that only
feature topics you’re interested in.

This can be a great resource for business as well as an incredible
time saver as you can bypass multiple online searches for the same
information that can be direct delivered to your RSS reader.

The work of online business is already hard enough. That’s
why using an RSS reader is a component that can enable you to have more
available time to work on other marketing chores and business
development.

In an online world that recognizes the power in knowledge-based
content RSS has become a goldmine for those interested in passing the
wealth along to their customers.

Photos, documents and written communication have all gone digital,
largely to everyone’s benefit. Digital documents are quicker to send
and need less storage space than physical files. But a paperless world
comes with its own problems.

When a system crashes or a computer breaks, important e-mails,
documents and photographs can be destroyed. According to the FBI, one
laptop is stolen every 53 seconds, leaving computer owners without
their family photographs or financial files. Thirty-one percent of PC
users have lost all of their files through no fault of their own. Every
15 seconds, another hard drive crashes. Yet, despite these looming
threats, an Interactive Data Corporation report shows that only 1.3
percent of consumers currently use some type of data backup.

With the increased use of laptops, more computer users are
beginning to realize they cannot afford to leave their personal and
professional digital files unprotected. With the advancement of the
online data-storage industry, data protection has become more affordable
and user-friendly.

There are several ways to approach backing up your data. You can buy an external or portable hard drive to make a copy of your data. (See my post “Protecting Your Memories”) Hard drives are so cheap these days, its certainly affordable. 

The other route you can go is to use an online solution.  Amazon has a service called Amazon S3. It costs about $.15 per GB and gets cheaper the more you use.  Mozy and Carbonite are good options.  A new service I just heard about recently is called BackBlaze.  Mozy, Carbonite, and Backblaze all cost around $5 a month.  The advantage of online storage is that your backup is offsite, which is very important because if your computer is stolen or house burns down, you still have a backup.

Twitter is a micro-blogging service and can even be considered a social network.  Its allows users to send updates, otherwise known as ‘tweets’ and read other users’ updates.  The tweets are much like the status updates in Facebook and can be no more than 140 characters in length.

Check out the explanation of what Twitter is in plain English from commoncraft.

Twitter asks the question, “What are you doing?”  When you need to say something that’s not necessarily directed at a particular person or merits an email and definitely not as in depth as a blog post, send a tweet.  There are multiple ways to send messages to Twitter.  There’s the web interface at Twitter.com but there’s a plethora of Twitter applications such as Twitterrific, Twitterfox, TweetDeck, Twhirl.

So, how can you make use of Twitter?

17 Ways YouCan Use Twitter: A Guide for Beginners, Marketers and Business Owners
ChrisPirillo’s Top Five Uses of Twitter
5 Ways to Use Twitter for Good
Twitter and Internal Office Use
Howto Use Twitter – Tips for Bloggers
A Day WithoutTwitter
Top 10 Uses of Twitter and Tools
18 Super Useful Ways To Use Twitter
Power-Tweeting: 101 Everyday Uses for Twitter
How We Use Twitter for Journalism

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.