The Bernard Factor Your Net on blogs

If you are like millions of bloggers on the net you probably have your blog on either a free service or have your own domain on a hosted account. Either which way you want to make sure that your provider can support you and your customers and minimize any downtime. If you are with a unreliable host and your site is constantly unavailable it will cost you more than customers. There are many things that you can look for when deciding on a hosting account some of which include customer testimonials, industry awards, and live support. While you are on their site call their 1-800 number and see who picks up and what the wait time is. This can be a huge factor when you are starting your account and need some help.
At sites like webhostrating.com they offer some great articles on cPanel Tutorials that can help even the most novice blogger understand some of the technical jargon. You will find in depth articles on how to identify good hosting plans and what questions to ask when looking for a new hosting site. Their cPanel Tutorials are just one of many valuable features that you will find as they are adding content weekly to help those of us who love to blog and create but are a little shy on the tech side.

We just went through the painful process of upgrading one of our online server accounts to move to a more robust server. It is like moving into a new home in that you never know how much stuff you have until you have to pack it all. We had to clean out so many files, SQL databases it was a dreadful process but one that was really needed. Our vendor helped us to do a Online Backup which was actually quite painless. I was first told that I would have download all the files from the old server to my PC, then upload all those files back to the new server. There were over 4000 total files in all not counting the 25 SQL databases. With their help we did a complete site backup to a zipped file, and the reloaded that back to the new server in a matter of hours. Doing a complete Forensics report on our account was done to find the files and data that needed to be replaced.

In the news there was a story this week about a woman suing BestBuy over the loss of her data and pictures on her laptop that she brought in for service. The case is one that has gained national attention on just how safe your precious files and pictures are when you take your PC or laptop into a reputable shop and they wipe out all your memories. The home PC and laptop are becoming as common as the TV and people use their home computers for surfing the internet, doing their taxes, and storing valuable documents and pictures. It always makes me worry since all we take are digital pictures and we store them on our PC. I do try and backup often, but in the event of a bad virus or malicious spyware that could take out years of memories.

My parents still have shoe boxes full of photos and this lost art may be the best way to still preserve those memories. As more people rely on their laptop to store important documents they need to make sure that they have the most up to date spyware, firewall, and virus protection. For many people adware spyware removal can be a daunting task and one that can be done by experts to help preserve your computer from crashing and loosing performance. Thanks to online companies like pcaskme.com all of these services and many others listed below can be done without ever having to take your computer out of the house.
Remote installation and trouble shooting is a great way to take care of adware and malicious problems that plague many computers today. You can tell if you have problems if you notice that your computer is running slower and you start to have unexplained error messages. At pcaskme.com they can diagnose and help solve your problems by tapping into your computer and helping you get your computer in optimal shape. They offer a range of packaged services like ridding your PC of spyware or you can buy blocks of time which is actually very inexpensive. All you need to do is call their 1-800 number and they will log onto your computer through secure connection and help get your PC back to normal. Other services that they offer include:

• PC Tune Up

• Vista Upgrade Install/Reinstall

• Vista Upgrade Advisor
• Vista Basic Training

Everyone knows that a key to a successful website or blog is traffic. Not only high traffic but targeted traffic that will drive revenue and become loyal customers. Getting more website traffic can be a very technical and time consuming venture if you do not have a plan and know the right channels to search in order to maximize your traffic efforts. Many people will spend thousands on keyword advertising through PPC which if done correctly can reap big benefits. Many will attempt to research online and read books on how to drive traffic through search engines and then organically through other means. The challenge here is to find the right mix of keywords and site optimization that will result in added revenue or increased readers for all those blogs. We have been successful in creating unique content and then keeping in contact with other blog owners where we provide links back to each other and occasionally mention one another in various posts. The search engines love new and fresh content and this has been the result of the thousands of blogs that are started everyday.

At companies like thinkbig.com they can help you gain more website traffic through various white hat methods like link management, SEO optimization, and keyword searches. They point out a very interesting statistic that only 2-5% of all websites are optimized for search engines. Since a large portion of traffic that will come to your site is through search engines then you need to make sure that your site and all it’s content is attracting the spiders from the top engines. In order to rise above the thousands of other sites competing for those eyes you need to create a niche and stick to it. Become an expert in a field where people look to you for current news and events and then this will lead to word of mouth and greater exposure. But in order to think big you need to find partners that can help you achieve your goals and are experts in the field of SEO.

A another new breakthrough from Apple who brought us the iPod, the iPhone and now the new laptop that is the thinnest notebook available. The commercials are impressive and looking at this laptop it is hard to believe that it is actually thin enough to fit into a mailing envelope. I have always been a PC guy and all the laptops that I have owned have been windows based. This may all have to change especially with as much traveling as I have to do lately the convenience that this new technology will bring will be great.

As I did my search for available units it was difficult to locate the new laptops but the older Macbooks can be found across sites like Savebuckets.co.uk. This site is really cool if you are looking for electronics, games, and MP3 players. You type in the item you are looking for then it will return searches that list the price and the various stores that have this item for sale. It helps you shop multiple locations in one click of the mouse and then you can visit those sites online and make your final decision. The site is easy to navigate and does not introduce pop-ups like many of the shopping comparison sites. As you can see by the name they are UK based and most of the stores that they list are in the UK it gives everyone a good idea of the fair market value of items you are looking for. Check them out today and see what bargains you can find and save buckets of money.

Every day hackers with malicious intent send loads of traffic to a website of their choosing to try and disrupt service, or take down the site. For businesses this can mean $1000’s in lost revenue, and lost customers. Some of these attacks are for political reasons from foreign countries, others are computer hackers that are just seeing what they can get away with. Using spam and other spyware they can really cause a lot of problems with company servers. Some have even been so bold as to post their accomplishments on bulletin boards thinking that they could never be traced. To protect your online investment there is now. What’s very nice is that the service does not require you to change servers, or buy any additional equipment. You just simply have your DNS pointed to the Proxyshield Network and your site will be protected.

Being successful in sales requires always being able to ask for the business and having the right information at the right time to help your customers understand why they should do business with you. I worked in copier sales for 7 years and we worked off sales leads and cold calls to gain business. At that time we had no CRM tools that actually linked the customers we were calling on to a main application. This had it’s drawbacks if we had someone leave the organization and their record keeping was less than stellar. This basically meant we were starting all over in that particular geography. We tried to use various lead management applications but none were easy to implement and they did not talk with our current systems so we were forced to create duplicate systems to make them work.
The value customer relationship management is critical to any business and having the right CRM software in place that is simple to understand by your reps is even more critical. Most sales people are resistant to change if they cannot see the value in how it will make them more effective. Customer relationship management software today has come a long way since I first started in copier sales. I have since moved onto another industry where they use a very sophisticated CRM tool which offers an immense of data and integration. I have found though that those reps that can take a few pieces of that tool and interface more effectively and target their customers are the ones who excel. Being able to understand the information you have to develop strategies and tactics while you are in the field is a powerful tool. And now that most of that data can been seen on the fly without having to wait for month end reports, we are able to tailor or selling efforts and create better value for the customer and the company.