Archive for September, 2008

Preventing Check Fraud

No service or feature can entirely eliminate check fraud. However, measures can be taken to greatly reduce the risk of check tampering or duplication. Following are suggestions for preventing check fraud:

1) Avoid leaving large blank spaces in the dollar amount line and avoid leaving blank spaces on the “Pay to the Order of” line.

2) Immediately report to your bank if checks payable to you are stolen.

3) Protect your account records and any documents containing personal identification information.

4) Close unnecessary accounts and destroy any checks for closed accounts.

5) Inform your bank about the status of your accounts.

6) Store your unused checks in a secure area.

Brought to you by ShopRMall.com

When you go to buy bread in the grocery store, have you ever wondered which is the freshest, so you “squeeze” for freshness or softness?

Did you know that bread is delivered fresh to the stores five days a week? They are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Each day has a different color twist tie or clip. They are:

• Monday – Blue
• Tuesday – Green
• Thursday – Red
• Friday – White
• Saturday – Yellow

So if today was Thursday, you would want red twist tie – not white which is Friday’s (almost a week old)!

The colors go alphabetically by color:

Blue – Green – Red – White – Yellow

Very easy to remember. Enjoy fresh bread when you buy bread with the right color on the day you are shopping.

Brought to you by ShopRMall.com

How to Choose an Affordable Web Design Service

Your website begins as an empty canvas. It has no color, no depth, no real reason for anyone to look at it. You and your web designers must have the passion and vision to turn that empty canvas into a website that will meet the needs of both you and your visitors.

Finding a web design service is easy. Choosing the right web design service is a challenge. More and more people are claiming to be web designers, but do they have the experience and expertise to transform your blank canvas into a work of art that will attract visitors, rank well on search engines, and give you a positive return on your investment? If the answer to any of those questions are no, then you are wasting your valuable time, money and resources.

Before choosing a web design service, ask yourself a few basic questions: What do you wish to achieve with your website? What demographic is your website trying to attract? Will its just promote your business or will you need an e-commerce solution?

Jot down a list of the needs and requirements of your website. Search other websites to help determine what features you wish to incorporate into your web design. Be careful, do not allow your ego to take over. Consider the demographics of the visitors you are trying to attract and choose colors and features that will appeal to them.

Now you are ready to choose a web design service. It is not necessary to use a local web design company. The Internet and the telephone eliminates the need for face to face interaction with your web designers. All aspects of your web development can be discussed and viewed without ever leaving the confines of your home or business. One caveat, please use a web design company located in the country where your reside. We may be in a global economy, but outsourcing the project to a foreign country will have a negative impact on your country’s economy and foreign outsourcing has already caused millions of workers to lose their jobs.

How much will building a website cost? It varies from several hundreds of dollars to several thousand dollars, depending on the requirements.of your website and the fees charged by your website designer. Your web design service should provide you with a cost estimate for the project. If your budget is tight, consider designing your website in phases. Have your basic website built first and add more complex feature later.

To be successful your web content should be updated regularly. Your website should always be a work in progress and fresh content is critical to attract new and repeat visitors.

Cire Web Site Design & Hosting offers affordable web design services. They have been in business since 1996 and have a proven track record and longevity. Cire can handle every aspect of your web site design, web development and web publishing. Beginning with a thorough understanding of your objectives, they will map out your site from initial deployment to a fully featured realization of your Internet vision. They will work with you to gather your web page content and then highlight your message using the latest in web publishing tools and techniques. Cire will deliver a cost effective, affordable, professionally website which will delight you and your customers.

There is No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

One of the most common words on the web is “free”. Free hosting, free email, free e-commerce … get rich quick, and it’s all free.

You may be tempted to host your web site via one of the “free” services; but I would highly recommend that you do not. As P.T. Barnum is quoted as saying: “There’s a sucker born every minute”.

All of these “entrepreneurs” are out to get something from you and your web site. It usually breaks into one of three categories:

• Banner Advertising – They place a banner ad or link to somewhere else on every one of “your” pages. It doesn’t look professional and you are providing FREE advertisement for someone else. Shouldn’t you be promoting your site?
• Free E-Commerce – You use their hosting or (expensive) credit card services. Variations of this theme typically offer one service for “free” while you pay for the rest. The bottom line is always money out of your pocket into theirs.
• Data Gathering – Every visitor to your site will be scrutinized for “valuable” marketing data, including email addresses to be sold to spammers.

When looking for a place to design & host your web site, remember the old adage: You get what you pay for.

What is Website Development?

Web development is any activity related to developing a website for the Internet. However, great web development will create credibility for your business and visibility to search engines which will allow potential customers to find your business, products or services.

Web development is a challenging activity that requires knowledge of web design software, tools, technologies, concepts and standards. This can include e-commerce, website design, web content development, client-side/server-side scripting, and web server configuration.

You can have a beautiful looking website, but if doesn’t function well for your customers, you will lose a very valuable marketing tool. Remember, you are not developing a website for your vanity or ego. Understand who your customer is and develop your website to meet their needs. Keep your website content interesting, Your website is an information portal to keep you visitors up to date on news about your business, sales and promotions.

The Internet is not biologically alive, but it is a ever changing entity that require expert advisers that understand the issues, search engine changes and discoveries that influence your web development decisions and your website’s ongoing maintenance.

Companies that specialize in web development are growing rapidly, but do they possess the skills, knowledge and experience to manage the ever changing aspects of the Internet? Do they understand web design Information architecture, web usability and search engine optimization? Will they have the longevity to continue as an expert advisor to your business?

Web development is a marketing resource to entice your customers to visit again and again. Pick your web design and development company wisely and you will maximize your return on investment and tum your website into a profit generating machine.

Life never seems to turn out just like you had planned. A good friend of mine worked in a small warehousing / trucking operation for many years. The BOSS owned 90% of the stock in the firm, which means he had full control. Another employee (the Manager) owned 8% of the stock. The two children of the boss owned the remaining 2%.

Basically, owning 8%, 20% or 49% of the stock in a small (closely held) company is of LITTLE value or importance UNTIL you SELL the stock or it changes hands at death.

Let me insert an important question…..try it on personally, today! If your BOSS were to die or become disabled (unable to work) TODAY….how would it affect your status in life? Your family? Could the business survive without him? This is very important if you are in a small firm and the boss holds the key to survival.

As an aside…many stocks are referred to as “phantom” stock. Usually given to employees as a means to keep them happy as “owners” of the business. In reality, the ownership control remains with the guys who OWN 51% plus of the company stock portfolio.

The “boss” (90% stockowner) spent his time running around the country, going fishing and taking care of his personal needs and wants. Every once in a while he would call back and ask the GM (general mgr.) if “they” had any money??

Then he would say, “put $1,000 in my account!” This was at a time when minimum wage was about 50 cents an hour. Owning 90% of the company was a powerful position and he could make any request and get it done…as long as the money was available.

Verbal Contracts Are Worthless

Our BOSS was really a nice guy. Honest! A real entrepreneur. He supposedly was a very generous person, too. He made some important VERBAL commitments to his General Manager/Vice President. The BOSS was considerably older than the GM/VP.

I’ll FIX everything so YOU (GM/VP) will OWN the business when I’m gone. A loyal employee…the GM/VP ran the firm for 45 years (a career lifetime!). The GM/VP would own the business when the boss kicked the bucket (died). There would not be a problem with the boss’ heirs (a son and daughter).

Do You See The Problem??

The boss (maybe!?) probably did have GOOD INTENTIONS! The boss did die and the GM/VP ended up with NOTHING more than his original 8% of the stock.

Understanding Email Aliasing

Email aliasing is a method that forwards emails sent to one email account to another email account. It is similar to the post office forwarding snail mail from your old home address to your hew home address when you move.

For example, let’s assume that your current Internet Service Provider (ISP) personal email address is: yourname@carolina.rr.com. You are also the owner of a business with a web site. You have purchased a domain name and web hosting service and wish to set up different email accounts for customer support, sales support, information about your services, and jobs opportunities. You have four different business email addresses. Your email addresses are support@yourcompany.com, sales@yourcompany.com, info@yourcompany.com, and jobs@yourcompany.com. In order to read all your email you would need to set up and check five separate email accounts, one for your personal email and four for your business. This can be tedious.

A better solutions would be to use email aliasing. Instead of opening and reading five email accounts you would only need to open and read one email account. Using email aliasing, all your business email will automatically forwarded to your personal email account yourname@carolina.rr.com. You can also use email aliasing to create a new person email address such as yourname@yourcompany.com. You now have a permanent personal email address. You can change your ISP without notifying all you personal and business contacts of the change. You simply contact your web hosting company and have them change the address where your email is being forwarded to. The change will be totally transparent to your existing contacts.

Email aliasing provides additional advantages. Email accounts on a server cost money and take up server disk space. Email aliasing allows the web hosting companies to charge less for their web hosting services. If you need affordable web design services and/or affordable web hosting, please consider Cire Web Site Design & Hosting. They have been in business since 1996 and have a proven track record and longevity.

Affordable Website Design Services

The competition for building web sites is growing by laps and bounds. A company that is relatively new in web design services may charge less than an experienced company, but will they be able to deliver a high quality, professional, customer focused web site?

As we all know, the Internet has leveled the playing field for anyone to start a profitable online business. The Internet provides a useful and powerful tool to attract and retain customers from all over the world. To create an online presence, you need to have a web site. Most start-up businesses do not have a large budget and cannot afford expensive web design services. However, It is no longer necessary to pay exorbitant fees to get a professional, custom designed web site for your business.

When choosing a web design company or individual, you need to check the quality of their services. Will they be there tomorrow, to update and maintain your web site? Do they understand search engine optimization (SEO). Can they design an e-commerce web site? Do they understand Internet security? Do they provide automated email responders? Do they understand PHP, LAMP, MySQL, Cascading Style Sheets, etc.?

Cire Web Design and Hosting has been in business since 1996 and have a proven track record and longevity. They offer affordable web design services and web hosting. They have the knowledge and skill to provide a customized web solution at a very affordable price. Your web site will be unique, professional designed and optimized for maximum Internet visibility.

Cire Web Site Design and Hosting is located in Charlotte, NC, but they have built web sites for business throughout the United States. Many of their clients have never been to their headquarters. All transactions were conducted successfully over the Internet and by telephone. They provide 24x7x365 customer service and a one stop solution for their customers. Besides offering affordable web design services, they can secure a domain name that is registered to you and host your site on a secure web server.

ShopRMall.com a web site designed, optimized, and hosted by Cire Web Site Design and Hosting and is currently ranked #2 in the category “shopping / retailers / virtual malls” by ranking.com and has an overall ranking of 11,250 out of the billions of web sites on the Internet.

If you want a stable, reliable, affordable web design service company, then consider Cire Web Site Design and Hosting. You will be pleased with your decision.

Are You Linked In?

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network and is growing rapidly. It operates a social network aimed at business users. LinkedIn has more than 27 million experienced professionals across the globe, representing over 100 industries and information on more than 50,000 companies.

The company was founded by Reid Hoffman and Konstantin Guericke, both Stanford graduates. Linkedin was launched in 2003. Prior to LinkedIn, Reid was Executive Vice President of PayPal.

LinkedIn’s basic account is free, but they also offer premium accounts starting at $60 per year for personal users and $19.95 a month for business accounts. Employers can also post jobs on Linkedin for a fee. Linkedin also sells advertising and Linkedin should reach $100 million in revenue in 2008.

LinkedIn allows individuals to post their profiles and to connect with business acquaintances, co-workers, and friends. You can connect by using Linkedin’s easy to use invitation system. The recipient of the invitation can archive your invitation without connecting with you, accept your invitation to connect or indicate that they don’t know you.

LinkedIn official policy when connecting is that you know the person you are reaching out to, generally someone you have worked with, collaborated with, or attended school with. If you invite connections that state that they don’t know you, LinkedIn penalizes you by requiring that you know the email address of the person you wish to connect with. However, many users are open net-workers who welcome and accept invitations to connect.

I use the following script when sending invitations to connect: “.Hello, my name is Mitch Webb, I am a Open Net-worker & LinkedIn LION. I would like to add you as a connection on LinkedIn. If you decide that you would rather not connect, could you please hit the “archive” button instead of “I don’t know”. That way I don’t get penalized for trying to connect with other professionals like you.”

LinkedIn is a wonderful tool and a very effective way to increase your personal network. It also serves as an terrific medium by which employers and job seekers can review information about one another. Get linked in now by joining LinkedIn.

Are You Tired of Remembering Passwords?

Are you tired of remembering multiple log ins and passwords? Are you tired of filling out forms with your personal or business information? Then let me recommend Roboform. Roboform is actually different programs in one, an online password manager and a automatic form filler. The software makes logging into web sites and completing forms easier, faster, and more secure.

The data Roboform saves is encrypted and you can protected it with a single password. It essentially puts all your passwords and important information in a safe that only you can access.

You can store multiple credit cards, addresses, and identities. Roboform protects your privacy by using individual PassCards. Each PassCard can be protected by its own password that is linked to an identify. This allows you to safely share Roboform with other members of your family. Each member can create their own indentity, store their personal passwords and information, and protect it with a single password. You can also setup multiple identities for yourself, one for home and one for business.

Roboform Features:

• Remembers your passwords and Logs you in automatically.
• Fills long registration and checkout forms with one click.
• Encrypts your passwords to achieve complete security.
• Generates random secure passwords to maximize password strength.
• Fights Phishing by entering passwords only on matching web sites.
• Defeats Keyloggers by not using the keyboard to type passwords.
• Backs up your passwords and copies them between computers.
• IE 7 and Vista are fully supported.
• Unlimited Passcards
• Unlimited Identities
• Unlimited sets of Credit Cards, Addresses, etc. in each Identity.
• Unlimited Personalized Custom Fields in each Identity.
• Multiple User Profiles.
• Handles check boxes and radio buttons
• Full Customer Service and Technical Support
• Great tutorial for new user

RoboForm is easy to use, safe and secure. Cire Web Site Design & Hosting highly recommends this software.