Six Reasons Why Your Competition is Getting Your Customers - Marketing & Sales - Biznik
A great read for any small business owner.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Gotta Love the Spammers
This has got to be one of the worst:
- Attn,The owner of this email The Board of Federal Ministry of Finance Benin Republic are hereby to notify you of your payment inherited funds of $1.5M Dollars.After the meeting held on 2nd October 2009.As your cheque refund as you fail to compy with Security Company,His Exelence the PRESIDENT OF FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF BENIN,DR.YAYI BONI had Instructed this Department to send you your funds through western union money transfer for making it easier of receiving your inherinted funds without any further delay to avoid paying money to the fraud stars that is going on through the global.the amount you will be receiving per day is $5000 till your entire sum of $1.5millon USD get to you, You are required to reconfirm to them below information to enable them verify and send Fund through western union as soon as you meet up with the directives of the Board. Your are required to send it this office with your name and address.Contact Western union Office with below address: Mr.Smith PetersForeign Operation Manager,Western Union Office;Email:(financebenin01@administrativos.com)Customer care Line;00229-93-742-579 Again reconfirm to them below information to enable them verify and transfer your Fund to you. 1.Your Full Name....2.Your Address... 3.Your Tel Number... 4.Occupation and Age......5.Country......6.A Copy of your ID..........Sincerly Yours Mrs. Susan Joe
- Attn,The owner of this email The Board of Federal Ministry of Finance Benin Republic are hereby to notify you of your payment inherited funds of $1.5M Dollars.After the meeting held on 2nd October 2009.As your cheque refund as you fail to compy with Security Company,His Exelence the PRESIDENT OF FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF BENIN,DR.YAYI BONI had Instructed this Department to send you your funds through western union money transfer for making it easier of receiving your inherinted funds without any further delay to avoid paying money to the fraud stars that is going on through the global.the amount you will be receiving per day is $5000 till your entire sum of $1.5millon USD get to you, You are required to reconfirm to them below information to enable them verify and send Fund through western union as soon as you meet up with the directives of the Board. Your are required to send it this office with your name and address.Contact Western union Office with below address: Mr.Smith PetersForeign Operation Manager,Western Union Office;Email:(financebenin01@administrativos.com)Customer care Line;00229-93-742-579 Again reconfirm to them below information to enable them verify and transfer your Fund to you. 1.Your Full Name....2.Your Address... 3.Your Tel Number... 4.Occupation and Age......5.Country......6.A Copy of your ID..........Sincerly Yours Mrs. Susan Joe
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Twitter Overload?
I was a reluctant convert to Twitter, and I'm still not sure what value it really brings to the evolving world of social media. I started out slowly, only following people I know. Then people I didn't know started following me. I thought it was pretty cool that people I didn't even know would be interested in what I had to say. Then I set up a TweetLater account so I could automatically start following these interesting strangers.
Next thing I know I've got hundreds of people following me and in turn I'm following hundreds of people. That means I'm now getting as many as five or ten tweets every minute! Thank goodness I found TweetDeck! This nifty little app runs on PC, Mac and Linux. TweetDeck lets you filter the tweets you receive so you can see more of what you want with less of what you don't.
The key is that TweetDeck allows users to group the folks they are following into categories. I have a category for people I know, one for other people I find interesting and one each for direct messages and replies. Everything else goes into an All Friends category. The categories can be arranged into columns and the columns can be arranged or hidden as desired. Users can click on Tweets and get profile information regarding the sender, follow or unfollow the sender and more.
As a user, you can Tweet directly from the app. TweetDeck even includes a utility that allows you to shorten URLs using any of several programs. Best of all users can post simultaneously to their Facebook account with a simple check of a box. I really enjoy being able to browse the hundreds of Tweets I get and unfollow the hucksters and nutjobs that seem to crop up wherever you go.
For me the jury is still out on Twitter, but now that I have a tool that filters out all the noise I think I'll stick with it a while longer. Now if they'd create a similar app for my phone...
Next thing I know I've got hundreds of people following me and in turn I'm following hundreds of people. That means I'm now getting as many as five or ten tweets every minute! Thank goodness I found TweetDeck! This nifty little app runs on PC, Mac and Linux. TweetDeck lets you filter the tweets you receive so you can see more of what you want with less of what you don't.
The key is that TweetDeck allows users to group the folks they are following into categories. I have a category for people I know, one for other people I find interesting and one each for direct messages and replies. Everything else goes into an All Friends category. The categories can be arranged into columns and the columns can be arranged or hidden as desired. Users can click on Tweets and get profile information regarding the sender, follow or unfollow the sender and more.
As a user, you can Tweet directly from the app. TweetDeck even includes a utility that allows you to shorten URLs using any of several programs. Best of all users can post simultaneously to their Facebook account with a simple check of a box. I really enjoy being able to browse the hundreds of Tweets I get and unfollow the hucksters and nutjobs that seem to crop up wherever you go.
For me the jury is still out on Twitter, but now that I have a tool that filters out all the noise I think I'll stick with it a while longer. Now if they'd create a similar app for my phone...
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Someone Has A Crush On Me and My Friends Think I'm An Idiot
I haven't had much use for the time-wasters my online friends toss my way. You know what I'm talking about - "Four of your friends thinks you're an idiot, find out who" or "Someone has a crush on you" are a couple I see a lot. You answer a few questions, but to see the results of your IQ test or find out who your secret admirer is, you need to enter your cell phone number. Oh yeah, and forward this message to all your friends. That always seemed a bit fishy to me, but I didn't give it a lot of thought.
Last night I caught a story on KOMO 4 TV that confirmed my suspicions. Seems that if you enter your cell phone number you'll find yourself receiving text messages with your horoscope or other information and you'll have a hard stopping it. Even worse you may find some new charges on your phone bill for the subscription to this service.
A quick Google search for "someone has a crush" yielded acouple of entries referring to these annoying emails. It seems another variation of this bothersome also harvests emails of you friends by asking you to enter the email addresses of the friend(s) that think you're and idiot or may have a crush on you.
Come on folks, aren't there enough ways to waste your time on the Internet? OK, I admit to forwarding "(Lil) Green Patches" and tossed a water balloon or two, but I'm amazed at the number of these things I get from my online friends. If you've got the time to spend writing 25 random things about yourself more power to you. But please don't send those to me. I haven't got the time. And do me and your true friends a favor: when someone or something online asks for our screen names, email addresses or anything else, please don't give it out.
Now, please pass this along to everyone in your address book.
Last night I caught a story on KOMO 4 TV that confirmed my suspicions. Seems that if you enter your cell phone number you'll find yourself receiving text messages with your horoscope or other information and you'll have a hard stopping it. Even worse you may find some new charges on your phone bill for the subscription to this service.
A quick Google search for "someone has a crush" yielded acouple of entries referring to these annoying emails. It seems another variation of this bothersome also harvests emails of you friends by asking you to enter the email addresses of the friend(s) that think you're and idiot or may have a crush on you.
Come on folks, aren't there enough ways to waste your time on the Internet? OK, I admit to forwarding "(Lil) Green Patches" and tossed a water balloon or two, but I'm amazed at the number of these things I get from my online friends. If you've got the time to spend writing 25 random things about yourself more power to you. But please don't send those to me. I haven't got the time. And do me and your true friends a favor: when someone or something online asks for our screen names, email addresses or anything else, please don't give it out.
Now, please pass this along to everyone in your address book.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Are You Vulnerable?
There are a couple of things that can really ruin your day when it comes to using your computers. The biggest issue our customers face is Malware (viruses, trojans, spyware, etc.), followed closely by compromised security. Protecting yourself from both is really not that difficult.
There are several providers of anti-Malware software. The trick is to find one you're comfortable with. We like eSet's NOD32 (Save 25% on ESET NOD32 Antivirus System. Download Now!), but there are others like AVG from Grisoft that work well. We aren't too keen on some of the big-name brands. They tend to take up a lot of system resources and slow down your computer.
There is one critical elememt that so many people forget about: virus definitions need to be current. If you have a laptop or if you turn your desktop off at night, your anti-virus program may not be getting updated. Without the updates, new viruses can sneak past even the best anti-virus program. Your anti-virus protection also has a license that will expire after a period of time (usually a year). If you don't renew your protection, it will not update.
The other critical element is security. If you use wirless networks (at home or on the road) you need to be especially vigilant. On a wireless network you need to implement some sort or encryption (called WEP or WPA). This will slow down anyone who wants to poach your Internet connection or access your data. But encryption is kind of like a deadbolt on your door. It's good, but someone who really wants to get in can. So what do you do?
Setting passwords on your user accounts is a good start, but for less than $50 anyone can by software on the Internet that will bypass these locks in short order. And many computers have simple passwords - or no password - on hidden accounts. Your real protection comes from putting secure passwords. I posted a blog on the Byte Slaves Bits site that has more information on this and other ways to secure your data.
The bottom line is this: If you're using a PC then you need to be extremely careful about exposing yourself to viruses. Even makes are becoming targets now, and if you share files between PCs and Macs you can share viruses. If you have a ny sensitive data on your computer, user-level passwords aren't much of a deterrent. You need to lock your data down at the program level or encrypt your entire hard drive. And, no matter what you do, if someone REALLY wants your data, they can get at it eventually. But unless you've got nuclear launch codes or something like that, basic protection is as good as the deadbolt on your front door. Theives will move on to easier targets.
There are several providers of anti-Malware software. The trick is to find one you're comfortable with. We like eSet's NOD32 (Save 25% on ESET NOD32 Antivirus System. Download Now!), but there are others like AVG from Grisoft that work well. We aren't too keen on some of the big-name brands. They tend to take up a lot of system resources and slow down your computer.
There is one critical elememt that so many people forget about: virus definitions need to be current. If you have a laptop or if you turn your desktop off at night, your anti-virus program may not be getting updated. Without the updates, new viruses can sneak past even the best anti-virus program. Your anti-virus protection also has a license that will expire after a period of time (usually a year). If you don't renew your protection, it will not update.
The other critical element is security. If you use wirless networks (at home or on the road) you need to be especially vigilant. On a wireless network you need to implement some sort or encryption (called WEP or WPA). This will slow down anyone who wants to poach your Internet connection or access your data. But encryption is kind of like a deadbolt on your door. It's good, but someone who really wants to get in can. So what do you do?
Setting passwords on your user accounts is a good start, but for less than $50 anyone can by software on the Internet that will bypass these locks in short order. And many computers have simple passwords - or no password - on hidden accounts. Your real protection comes from putting secure passwords. I posted a blog on the Byte Slaves Bits site that has more information on this and other ways to secure your data.
The bottom line is this: If you're using a PC then you need to be extremely careful about exposing yourself to viruses. Even makes are becoming targets now, and if you share files between PCs and Macs you can share viruses. If you have a ny sensitive data on your computer, user-level passwords aren't much of a deterrent. You need to lock your data down at the program level or encrypt your entire hard drive. And, no matter what you do, if someone REALLY wants your data, they can get at it eventually. But unless you've got nuclear launch codes or something like that, basic protection is as good as the deadbolt on your front door. Theives will move on to easier targets.
Monday, November 24, 2008
"Tis The Season
I'd like to take a Time Out from technology and see if I can't raise some money for the Salvation Army. Times are tough many this season, but there are some that are in desperate need. The Salvation Army does a lot of great things in our communities. Please help them help others.
"Tis The Season
I'd like to take a brief Time Out from talking about making money to focus on Giving. I want to help the Salvation Army raise some cash. The programs they sponsor in our local communities are outstanding. Business may be tough for us, but life is a lot tougher for others.
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