Archive for Technology
Is it Time for an iPad?
Posted by: | Comments
Convinced you need an iPad to make your life complete? You’re not the only one! The latest estimates say that there are some 7.5 million iPads already being put to use by rabid consumers world-wide, and those numbers are bound to rise even further with each holiday season.
So if you want an iPad, what’s the next step? Here’s what you need to do:
Decide if you want to buy from Apple or from a reseller
I always recommend buying from Apple, because of the added confidence you’ll have in being able to get repairs or a refund if something were to go wrong. Also, if you purchase an Apple product elsewhere than the Apple Store, they will not replace it if there’s a problem. The lower price isn’t worth the hassle; go with Apple.
Decide if you want to buy online or from an Apple Store
With over 300 stores world-wide, there’s a good chance there’s an Apple Store near you. But if you don’t want to deal with parking, lines, and “the mall” (where most Apple Stores are located), you can buy your iPad online with free shipping. Just go to their website or copy and paste this link in your browser to see your choices:
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_ipad/family/ipad
Choose a 3G or a Wi-Fi model
There have been problems with the Wi-Fi model; our next door neighbors barely picks up the household signal, even when their iPhone and laptop are picking up a strong wireless signal. If you plan on using it outside your home at all, I recommend going with the 3G; the monthly data plan is very reasonable, and the ease of being able to pick up a signal anywhere is a huge convenience.
Choose your size
$200 for four times the storage space seems like a no-brainer to me, but I’m one who firmly believes that bigger is better, at least when it comes to hard drives! However, if you don’t plan on using your iPad to store videos or audios, you may find the smaller sizes perfectly adequate. Remember though; just as with closets and garages, if you have the space, you’ll use it. And the more space you have, the more you’ll use your iPad.
That’s it. The only other question you may have is what accessories you’ll want, and if you want to engrave a pithy saying on the backside of your iPad (think of it as an electronic tattoo). The process is painless, as it should be. And setting up your new baby will take even less time than buying it did.
Protecting Your Business from Malware
Posted by: | Comments
It’s an unfortunate fact of life that if you do any part of your business on the internet (even if it’s just a simple website or blog), then you’re at risk of an attack from hackers. While we tend to read about the large corporate hacking targets most often in the news and think of hacking only in terms of big companies, in truth every business with an online component is a target.
Even if your website doesn’t collect any personal information from your customers, or have any financial assets that could be stolen, it might still have value to hackers. For example, a hacker that compromises your website could gain access to your web server and use that server to send spam, store illegal files or engage in other illicit online activities.
Stay Current on Security Updates
Hopefully you’re already in the habit of staying current on all the security updates for whatever web platform your website is based upon. For example, WordPress users who stay up to date on all of the underlying security updates are generally quite safe.
But the current trend in web business and web commerce (a trend that is continuing to accelerate) is using custom functionalities and custom applications along with the standard web platform. For WordPress users, one common type of custom web application is a “plug-in” that’s used to provide a new function on the website. These plug-ins can take many different forms, and are currently being used by many websites.
WordPress Plug-In Safety
Many WordPress websites use plug-ins that are available either on WordPress’ own plug-in directory, or through the plug-in author’s own website. One advantage of sticking with plug-ins that are available through the WordPress plug-in directory is that you’ll be able to read feedback from other users who have already tried the plug-in.
For this reason, you might want to avoid using any new plug-ins until there is enough feedback for you to feel comfortable that any security risks are minimal. Positive feedback is certainly no guarantee of a secure plug-in, but that feedback should be helpful to your decision-making process.
If your custom application is truly custom (in the sense that you retain a programmer to build the application to your specifications), then the best way to protect your business is to be confident that the programmer or company that’s making the application for you is highly qualified and has created other secure applications in the past.
Test and Verify
In addition, if your business is large then you may have the budget available to hire a computer security consulting firm to review and verify the security of the code that makes up your custom applications. If you’re unable to hire a security firm to test the security of your custom applications, then you can gain some level of comfort by using the various open source tools that are available, including those at w3af.sourceforge.net and www.websecurify.com.
Because your web presence is so valuable, it’s ultimately up to you to be confident that whatever custom applications you include on your website don’t compromise your overall site security.
Podcasting For Solopreneurs
Posted by: | Comments
Podcasting is one of the “hot” things on the bucket list for the solopreneur. Named after the Apple iPod MP3 player, podcasting refers to uploading MP3 recordings onto your website. Other people can download these into their MP3 players or listen via the internet.
A podcast is similar to a blog, or weblog. Instead of reading your words, however, with a podcast people can listen to them. Many podcasts have a format similar to a radio talk show, where the host gives their thoughts and opinions on a given topic; some also interview guests or include a roundtable discussion with others.
Podcasts are great for publicity. As stated before, they are the newest thing on the internet and people are hooked on them. You can integrate your podcast with iTunes. People can have your podcast automatically downloaded onto their Mp3 player. There are also RSS feeds that will do the same thing.
You can choose to have a general podcast that will serve as publicity for your website. You can also opt to have your podcast promote a single item, such as an information product you created.
You can monetize your podcast by selling ad space, or commercials, that will play during your podcast. You can also give out your affiliate links during your podcast. For instance, you can review a product that you are an affiliate for, and tell your listeners to check out the product at your affiliate link.
Some people may choose to have a member’s only podcast. This is a podcast that is only offered to people that have paid a membership fee to you. Usually, these types of podcasts are highly informative and at least an hour in length. You may interview experts or present the podcast as a mini information product.
You can promote your podcast in several ways. Of course, you will want to include information about your podcast on your website. You can give a sneak peek at upcoming topics or guests. You may also want to create a newsletter that reminds people when new podcasts are uploaded and provides links for more information.
If you interview someone, ask them to send out an email to their list letting them know they will be a guest on your podcast. If your interviewee has a large following, many people will subscribe to your podcast in order to hear the interview. You can also provide a press release template so they can alert the local media of their appearance, or you can also send out press releases to publicize your guests’ appearance.
To create a podcast, you can use a service such as Audio Acrobat. For a small monthly fee, you can record and upload audio files to your website. Audio Acrobat allows you to record via your telephone or computer microphone. They are also integrated with iTunes, so your podcast will have the potential to be accessed by millions of people. To edit your audio, you can use free shareware, such as Audacity.
Podcasting can be a fun and profitable way to market your business. Give it a try and see if you like it. Unlike traditional internet talk radio, you don’t have to put too much money into it. You really have nothing to lose.
Web Analytics for Solopreneurs
Posted by: | Comments
Website analytics can tell you a lot. For a solopreneur, understanding web analytics is a crucial skill. Your analytics can tell you whether people understand what you’re offering, whether people like your brand and whether or not your website is helping you make money.
Here are some of the important numbers every small business should be watching in their web analytics.
How Many Visitors Are You Getting?
The first and most important number you should be watching is how many visitors you’re getting. In addition to the raw number, also pay attention to whether the visitor count is going up or down.
As your marketing efforts progress, you should see a direct boost to your visitor count. It might not happen right away, but within a couple months you should see a measurable increase.
How Many Hit a Goal?
Every website should have a very clear goal. For example, your website might be designed to get someone to fill out a form for a free sample. Or it might be designed to get someone to print out a coupon for a free appetizer and bring it into your restaurant.
Whatever the case, you should be carefully tracking the goal hit rate for your website.
Use the “Goals” feature in Google Analytics to track this.
Geographic Location
Are the people who’re landing on your website the right kinds of people? If you have a small local business, check to make sure the traffic you’re getting is actually from your area.
Where Does the Traffic Come From?
How do people end up on your website? Do they type something into the search engines and end up on your site? Or do they enter your URL manually? Is someone else sending people to your website?
Tracking your traffic sources and your referrer data can give you valuable information about what’s working and what’s not working when it comes to generating traffic.
The Bounce Rate
The bounce rate measures the percentage of people who land on your website and leave without visiting a second page on your website.
A high bounce rate usually means that visitors came to your site expecting one thing but didn’t find what they were looking for. If your bounce rate is above 60%, you might have some serious revamping to do. Of course, if you are looking at the stats on a one page sales letter, your bounce rate is irrelevant.
Are People Coming Back?
Finally, check to see whether or not people who visit your website come back again.
For some businesses, this is an irrelevant statistic. For example, a restaurant’s website doesn’t really expect to get repeat visitors. People just use the website to find the address or phone number so they can show up.
But for most solopreneurs, you do want people to keep coming back to your site. If people are coming back time and again, that probably means people are finding your website useful. Check your returning visitor rate to see how well you’re doing in this department.
These are some of the many things that your analytics system can tell you. Learning to understand analytics can really help you steer your small business in the right direction.
Technology and Memory
Posted by: | Comments
Today, there are more forms of memory than you can shake a stick at. Technically, memory can be anything used to store data, but today it is most commonly referred to as quickly accessed forms of storage. Just think about how slow your computer would be if it had to access the hard drive every time it needed to process a command. For this very reason, the computer selects a temporary memory device to store all of the commonly used commands so they can be pulled back up quickly. The different types of quick-pull memory include flash memory and various types of random access memory and read only memory. Let’s take a look at these different types of memory and see what sets them apart from each other.
Read Only Memory
ROM is a type of memory where information has been pre-recorded and is only available to be read. There is a slight variation, called PROM, or programmable read only memory, which is a set of memory devices, like a read only CD, that can be programmed, but then never changed. Once the memory is on the device and the session is closed, the memory cannot be added to or changed.
Random Access Memory
While read only memory can be accessed in a certain order, like a cassette tape, random access memory can be accessed from any point at any time, as long as you know the exact location of the cell the memory is stored in. Most of a computers’ quick access memory is stored in RAM, but there is an issue when the computer looses power; the memory is erased.
Flash Memory
Finally, the most notable type of memory today is flash memory. This memory comes in the form of flash drives, also known as thumb drives, and even the cards you insert into your digital camera. Flash memory is considered non-volatile, which means that it can be electronically erased and reprogrammed when deemed necessary. Today, each flash drive can be erased in pieces and parts, whereas, five years ago, if you wanted to erase a portion of data on the flash drive, the entire drive had to be wiped clean.
Flash memory is also more cost-effective than any other type of memory produced today. There are currently developments being tested in hopes of making hard drives only from flash memory. The reason this is the wave of the future, there are no moving parts in flash memory. No moving parts mean that there will be far fewer failures with the memory.
There are numerous types of memory. Each type has a certain purpose for which it was made. Computer memory is a basic storage device, just like your brain. The only difference between your memory and a computer’s memory is the way in which the information is recovered and the space available to store information. The next time you try to do something on an electronic device, see if you can identify what type of memory is being used.
